From truthout.org :
The Wall That Now Divides Us
By Charlie Anderson
tr u t h o u t Guest Contributor
Friday 16 March 2007
Most Walls are meant to divide us and separate me from you, But God bless the wall that brings us together and reminds us Of what we've been through.- James W. Herrick, Touch a Name on the Wall
The night air was cool and damp with spring rain as I walked down the dimly lit path in front of the Vietnam Memorial Wall for the first time. I was only nine years old and too young to fully grasp the meaning of the seemingly endless sea of names etched on black onyx tablets in front of me. I was also far too young to understand the impact of the Vietnam War on our country or the impact it had on the generation of young Americans that fought it. But, even as a young child, I could tell that The Wall was sacred space.
There was an overwhelming air of sorrow that permeated the air around the shrine; people spoke only in hushed tones, many stared at a single name for long periods of time, and even a young child like me could easily be moved to tears.
The Vietnam War tore the nation apart. Nearly 60,000 Americans gave their lives in the struggle, over 300,000 more were wounded, and countless more are still suffering with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and Agent Orange. The nation itself was polarized into camps of "pro-war" and "anti-war," casting aside similarities, such as love of country, in favor of political differences.
The result was a nation that to this day has not reconciled the societal cost of the war. Worse, the concentration of public opinion also forced the war's veterans into polarized camps of "pro-war" and "anti-war" regardless of their shared suffering and shared experience. The chasm created by this unfortunate polarization has prevented many veterans from finding peace with the war.
The Vietnam Memorial Wall was built to deliberately cast aside these controversies and create hallowed ground where the nation could grieve the loss of a generation of its youth, away from the political distractions and away from the turmoil surrounding the war. Though many vehemently opposed The Wall as inappropriate or simply an "ugly black gash in the ground" before its construction, the nation has come to treasure the memorial as a shrine to 58,253 unfinished lives.
Twenty years after my first visit, I visited The Wall as a combat veteran. The Wall took on an entirely new significance to me during that visit. The Iraq War is in many ways similar to the Vietnam War. Both wars were controversial at home, causing the veterans to feel betrayed or abandoned by government or the population at large.
In both wars, the mission was often unclear to "the grunts on the ground." Much-needed equipment and material goods were denied to the forces in the field by Washington bureaucrats, and in both wars, the care of veterans has not been a true priority. The treatment of veterans has led many veterans of both wars to feel cut off from the nation they love and honorably served.
On that and subsequent visits, The Wall felt like a sanctuary from the political storm that has surrounded "my war." The memorial is a place where I can mourn the dead not only of the Vietnam War, but of all wars, including mine. As a warrior, I carry the loss of life and the loss of innocence tightly within my heart. On every visit to The Wall since returning from Iraq, I have met people who disagree with me about the Iraq War. Yet, there is no politics around the wall; we mourn in silence or share our grief aloud not as liberals or conservatives, not as hawks or doves, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as human beings united by our suffering.
I was saddened to learn recently that for the first time since the beginning of the Iraq War, the sanctity of The Wall will be challenged by protest. On March 17, a coalition of citizens concerned about the war gathers for a protest march originating at Constitution Park across the street from The Wall. A group of counter-demonstrators, calling themselves The Gathering of Eagles, will gather around and presumably in the memorial while spreading their pro-war, pro-Bush/Cheney message.
The "eagles" claim that their intention is to "defend" The Wall from attack by the anti-war demonstrators. Yet, through four years of anti-war protest, there have been few incidents of vandalism and no war memorial has been damaged in the past. Further, hundreds of veterans and military families, including those who have had loved ones die in this war, are at the forefront of today's anti-movement. None of us who have sacrificed in this war would tolerate, much less condone, such behavior.
While the mission statement of the "eagles" states, "... we are adamantly opposed to the use of violence, vandalism, physical or verbal assaults on our veterans, and the destruction or desecration of our memorials ... we defend and honor those whose blood gave all of us the right to speak as freely as our minds think."
Yet, a cursory look at the comments section at the bottom of the page tells a different story. One commentator said, "I hope one of these Muslim commies cross the line so we can teach them a valuable lesson. I will be there with my brothers and will be victorious over these Dimicrat scum. This will teach them not to look at us with seditious eyes."
Another expressed similar sentiments: "We need to show these anti-war turkeys we are all business that the sacrifice and honor of the men and women of this Memorial will not be defaced by the likes of them."
Organizers for the veterans' contingent of the anti-war march have also received death threats from "eagle" supporters. It seems that the real intent of the Gathering of Eagles is to intimidate those who do not agree with their position on the war. They purport to believe in free speech and to forever honor America's men and women in uniform until the men and women in uniform disagree with them.
At the point at which we veterans who feel a duty not to remain silent and advocate that our brothers and sisters in arms be brought home alive and cared for both now and when they get here, the "eagles" call us "commies," "traitors" or "dimicrat scum."
I took an oath to defend the Constitution and honorably served ten years in uniform. I still hold my oath no less sacred than the "eagles" claim to. One of the ways to honor that oath is speak freely and from the heart. I sacrificed everything I had and everything I was when I went to Iraq. I lost my marriage, a job I loved, and the very way I viewed the world. It is a shame these "eagles" who claim to love and support me so much not only want to silence my voice, but they have chosen to put a wall between me and the one place in America I where I can truly let my guard down and grieve.
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Charles E. Anderson served in Iraq with the Marine Corps' Second Tank Battalion during the invasion of Iraq. During his nine-year career, he served in infantry, armor, and medical units. He lives in Hampton, Virginia, where he is a World Studies student at Thomas Nelson Community College. He can be contacted through his website at
http://www.charleseanderson.com.
Wrap...
Friday, March 16, 2007
New White House Counsel to the rescue?
From
WASHINGTON, March 15 — It was hardly a social call when Fred F. Fielding,the new White House counsel, turned up Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.
He had come to negotiate with Democrats, who are investigating whether politics played a role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors and demanding testimony from Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush.
But Mr. Fielding’s real task is even bigger and more delicate: to serve as the point man for the White House as it decides the future of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Texas friend and confidant of Mr.Bush.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/washington/16fielding.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
[cont reading at above link]
Wrap...
WASHINGTON, March 15 — It was hardly a social call when Fred F. Fielding,the new White House counsel, turned up Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.
He had come to negotiate with Democrats, who are investigating whether politics played a role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors and demanding testimony from Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush.
But Mr. Fielding’s real task is even bigger and more delicate: to serve as the point man for the White House as it decides the future of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Texas friend and confidant of Mr.Bush.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/washington/16fielding.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
[cont reading at above link]
Wrap...
Thursday, March 15, 2007
From Patrick Fitzgerald to Stevie Wonder...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has turned down requests from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to testify on the Valerie Plame leak case. Fitzgerald said he did "not believe it would be appropriate for me to offer opinions...about the ultimate responsibility of senior White House officials for the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity."
Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed "responsibility for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," according to 26 pages of transcripts released from Gitmo by the Pentagon yesterday. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, "We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?"
New York Times editorial board today condemns Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace's homophobic comments: "General Pace should still apologize for his remarks, forthrightly. Then perhaps some good could come out of his bigoted remarks if they added to the growing movement on Capitol Hill to finally allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military."
A new poll finds widespread agreement in 17 countries that climate change is a pressing problem. Eighty-five percent of Americans believe global warming is an important or critical threat.
$2.45 billion: the revenues raked in by lobbyists last year. "The Center for Responsive Politics found that companies, unions and other organizations spent a record amount to lobby in 2006, in spite of the black eye from the Jack Abramoff scandal and a midterm election that caused Congress to close early."
Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) are drafting a joint resolution on Iraq that would consider a phased redeployment of U.S. troops -- "but only after giving the White House until at least September to prove the current 'surge' strategy has worked."
"Two key lawmakers are seeking independent investigations of military readiness after service officials said extended operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have left shortages of war stocks that could limit the military's ability to respond to a crisis."
And finally: Even congressmen "go ga-ga" and get starstruck. At a star-studded tribute to Stevie Wonder in Washington, D.C., "usually dignified folk were reduced to gushing fans. 'I love Stevie Wonder,' Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) exclaimed." Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), formerly a "teenage Wonder devotee," remembered how in college, "he could afford only nosebleed seats."
Wrap...
Think Fast
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has turned down requests from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to testify on the Valerie Plame leak case. Fitzgerald said he did "not believe it would be appropriate for me to offer opinions...about the ultimate responsibility of senior White House officials for the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity."
Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed "responsibility for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," according to 26 pages of transcripts released from Gitmo by the Pentagon yesterday. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, "We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?"
New York Times editorial board today condemns Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace's homophobic comments: "General Pace should still apologize for his remarks, forthrightly. Then perhaps some good could come out of his bigoted remarks if they added to the growing movement on Capitol Hill to finally allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military."
A new poll finds widespread agreement in 17 countries that climate change is a pressing problem. Eighty-five percent of Americans believe global warming is an important or critical threat.
$2.45 billion: the revenues raked in by lobbyists last year. "The Center for Responsive Politics found that companies, unions and other organizations spent a record amount to lobby in 2006, in spite of the black eye from the Jack Abramoff scandal and a midterm election that caused Congress to close early."
Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) are drafting a joint resolution on Iraq that would consider a phased redeployment of U.S. troops -- "but only after giving the White House until at least September to prove the current 'surge' strategy has worked."
"Two key lawmakers are seeking independent investigations of military readiness after service officials said extended operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have left shortages of war stocks that could limit the military's ability to respond to a crisis."
And finally: Even congressmen "go ga-ga" and get starstruck. At a star-studded tribute to Stevie Wonder in Washington, D.C., "usually dignified folk were reduced to gushing fans. 'I love Stevie Wonder,' Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) exclaimed." Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), formerly a "teenage Wonder devotee," remembered how in college, "he could afford only nosebleed seats."
Wrap...
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
An Odd, but interesting collection of film and books...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
GENERAL/OTHER:
Former editor of Cosmopolitan and Her magazines in the UK Linda Kelsey's FIFTY IS NOT A FOUR-LETTER WORD, about a magazine executive who turns fifty and immediately is fired, learns her mother is terminally ill, and is left by her husband, to Amy Einhorn at Warner, with Emily Griffin editing, by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown UK (NA).
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Jenna Bush's ANA'S STORY: A Journey of Hope, based on her experiences working with UNICEF in Central America, focusing on a seventeen-year-old single mother who was orphaned at a young age and is living with HIV, with photographs by Mia Baxter, to Kate Jackson at Harper Children's, for publication in fall 2007 (Harper says they'll print about 500,000 copies), by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly (world). Her proceeds will go to UNICEF, where she is working as an intern.
BIOGRAPHY:
David Cruise and Alison Griffiths' CHASING FREEDOM: Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Wild Horses, the story of Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston, who fought to protect wild horses from being sent to slaughter, leading to the 1971 "Wild Horse Annie Law" - which has recently been gutted, putting the nation's mustangs back at risk, to Samantha Martin at Scribner, in conjunction with Kevin Hanson at Simon & Schuster Canada
(NA).HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
National Journal investigative reporter Murray Waas's instant book THE UNITED STATES v. I. LEWIS LIBBY, drawn from the transcript of the trial of Scooter Libby, just convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction of justice, including original reporting and an introductory essay, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press, for publication in April as a trade paperback original (world).
MEMOIR:
Vanity Fair contributor and LA Times writer Richard Rushfield's DON'T FOLLOW ME, I'M LOST: A Memoir of Hampshire College at the Twilight of the 80s, the story of a pure-bred LA teen who abandons the west coast sunshine and mentality to discover the unique "slacker" culture found on this Western Massachusetts campus just as it is being eclipsed by the rise of political correctness, to Brett Valley at Gotham, in a pre-empt, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (NA).
Musician and former *NSYNC member Lance Bass's OUT OF SYNC, a "candid" book about his life, his music, and his life as a gay man, to Patrick Price at Simon Spotlight Entertainment, for publication in October 2007, by Mel Berger at William Morris Agency (world).
NARRATIVE:
US News and World Report writer and contributing editor Ulrich Boser's MISSING: The untold story behind the world's largest art theft, employing the case files of Harold Smith, the late, world-famous art detective, to unravel the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery, following unfinished leads linking the theft (which included one of only 36 known Vermeers) to FBI's wanted man Whitey Bulger and the IRA, and exploring the world of art, theft and obsession, to Elisabeth Dyssegaard at Smithsonian Books, by Gillian MacKenzie of the Gillian MacKenzie Agency (world).gmackenzie@gillianmackenzieagency.com
Film:
Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning filmmaker and former Balthazar and Il Buco sommelier Jonathan Nossiter's TASTE & POWER, illuminating the homogenizing pitfalls of globalization on wine, to Jonathan Galassi at Farrar, Straus, with Courtney Hodell editing, by Bill Clegg at William Morris Agency (World English).Foreign rights to Grasset in France and Companhia das Letras in Brazil.
FILM:
Jeff Henderson's COOKED, the story of his journey from teenaged crack dealer (and prison inmate for 10 years) to world-class chef at a resort in Las Vegas, to Columbia, with Will Smith's Overbrook producing, along with Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal of Escape Artists, by Howard Sanders at UTA, on behalf of Michael Psaltis of Culinary Cooperative and Joe Regal of Regal Literary.
Wrap...
GENERAL/OTHER:
Former editor of Cosmopolitan and Her magazines in the UK Linda Kelsey's FIFTY IS NOT A FOUR-LETTER WORD, about a magazine executive who turns fifty and immediately is fired, learns her mother is terminally ill, and is left by her husband, to Amy Einhorn at Warner, with Emily Griffin editing, by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown UK (NA).
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Jenna Bush's ANA'S STORY: A Journey of Hope, based on her experiences working with UNICEF in Central America, focusing on a seventeen-year-old single mother who was orphaned at a young age and is living with HIV, with photographs by Mia Baxter, to Kate Jackson at Harper Children's, for publication in fall 2007 (Harper says they'll print about 500,000 copies), by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly (world). Her proceeds will go to UNICEF, where she is working as an intern.
BIOGRAPHY:
David Cruise and Alison Griffiths' CHASING FREEDOM: Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Wild Horses, the story of Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston, who fought to protect wild horses from being sent to slaughter, leading to the 1971 "Wild Horse Annie Law" - which has recently been gutted, putting the nation's mustangs back at risk, to Samantha Martin at Scribner, in conjunction with Kevin Hanson at Simon & Schuster Canada
(NA).HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
National Journal investigative reporter Murray Waas's instant book THE UNITED STATES v. I. LEWIS LIBBY, drawn from the transcript of the trial of Scooter Libby, just convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction of justice, including original reporting and an introductory essay, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press, for publication in April as a trade paperback original (world).
MEMOIR:
Vanity Fair contributor and LA Times writer Richard Rushfield's DON'T FOLLOW ME, I'M LOST: A Memoir of Hampshire College at the Twilight of the 80s, the story of a pure-bred LA teen who abandons the west coast sunshine and mentality to discover the unique "slacker" culture found on this Western Massachusetts campus just as it is being eclipsed by the rise of political correctness, to Brett Valley at Gotham, in a pre-empt, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (NA).
Musician and former *NSYNC member Lance Bass's OUT OF SYNC, a "candid" book about his life, his music, and his life as a gay man, to Patrick Price at Simon Spotlight Entertainment, for publication in October 2007, by Mel Berger at William Morris Agency (world).
NARRATIVE:
US News and World Report writer and contributing editor Ulrich Boser's MISSING: The untold story behind the world's largest art theft, employing the case files of Harold Smith, the late, world-famous art detective, to unravel the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery, following unfinished leads linking the theft (which included one of only 36 known Vermeers) to FBI's wanted man Whitey Bulger and the IRA, and exploring the world of art, theft and obsession, to Elisabeth Dyssegaard at Smithsonian Books, by Gillian MacKenzie of the Gillian MacKenzie Agency (world).gmackenzie@gillianmackenzieagency.com
Film:
Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning filmmaker and former Balthazar and Il Buco sommelier Jonathan Nossiter's TASTE & POWER, illuminating the homogenizing pitfalls of globalization on wine, to Jonathan Galassi at Farrar, Straus, with Courtney Hodell editing, by Bill Clegg at William Morris Agency (World English).Foreign rights to Grasset in France and Companhia das Letras in Brazil.
FILM:
Jeff Henderson's COOKED, the story of his journey from teenaged crack dealer (and prison inmate for 10 years) to world-class chef at a resort in Las Vegas, to Columbia, with Will Smith's Overbrook producing, along with Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal of Escape Artists, by Howard Sanders at UTA, on behalf of Michael Psaltis of Culinary Cooperative and Joe Regal of Regal Literary.
Wrap...
GOP Rep Sununu says, "Fire Gonzales"....
From KFMB.com :
Republican Says Gonzales Should Be Fired
Last Updated:03-14-07 at 2:06PM
WASHINGTON
Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer.
"I think the president should replace him," Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Gonzales has been fending off Democratic calls for his firing in the wake of disclosures surrounding the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys.Bush, at a news conference in Mexico, told reporters when asked about the controversy: "Mistakes were made. And I'm frankly not happy about them."
But the president expressed confidence in Gonzales, a longtime friend, and defended the firings.
"What Al did and what the Justice Department did was appropriate," he said.
What was "mishandled," Bush said, was the Justice Department's release of some but not all details of how the firings were carried out.
Sununu said the firings, together with a report last Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general criticizing the administration's use of secret national security letters to obtain personal records in terrorism probes, shattered his confidence in Gonzales.
"We need to have a strong, credible attorney general that has the confidence of Congress and the American people," said Sununu, who faces a tough re-election campaign next year. "Alberto Gonzales can't fill that role." "I think the attorney general should be fired," Sununu said.
For days, Republican have issued only lukewarm statements of support for Gonzales after some of the fired prosecutors complained at hearings last week that lawmakers tried to influence political corruption investigations. Several dismissed prosecutors also said there had been Justice Department attempts to intimidate them.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Gonzales would lose his job."I think he is gone. I don't think he'll last long," Reid said in an interview with Nevada reporters.
Asked how long, Reid responded: "Days."
Wrap...
Republican Says Gonzales Should Be Fired
Last Updated:03-14-07 at 2:06PM
WASHINGTON
Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer.
"I think the president should replace him," Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Gonzales has been fending off Democratic calls for his firing in the wake of disclosures surrounding the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys.Bush, at a news conference in Mexico, told reporters when asked about the controversy: "Mistakes were made. And I'm frankly not happy about them."
But the president expressed confidence in Gonzales, a longtime friend, and defended the firings.
"What Al did and what the Justice Department did was appropriate," he said.
What was "mishandled," Bush said, was the Justice Department's release of some but not all details of how the firings were carried out.
Sununu said the firings, together with a report last Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general criticizing the administration's use of secret national security letters to obtain personal records in terrorism probes, shattered his confidence in Gonzales.
"We need to have a strong, credible attorney general that has the confidence of Congress and the American people," said Sununu, who faces a tough re-election campaign next year. "Alberto Gonzales can't fill that role." "I think the attorney general should be fired," Sununu said.
For days, Republican have issued only lukewarm statements of support for Gonzales after some of the fired prosecutors complained at hearings last week that lawmakers tried to influence political corruption investigations. Several dismissed prosecutors also said there had been Justice Department attempts to intimidate them.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Gonzales would lose his job."I think he is gone. I don't think he'll last long," Reid said in an interview with Nevada reporters.
Asked how long, Reid responded: "Days."
Wrap...
Rumsfeld plus others...War Crimes....
From www.sfgate.com :
BERKELEY
City Council considers role in Rumsfeld war crimes case
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The Berkeley City Council was in the spotlight Tuesday night as it grappled with whether to become the first U.S. government entity to support the prosecution of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials for war crimes.
If the council approves the resolution, Berkeley would become a co-plaintiff if Germany files a criminal complaint against Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other U.S. officials for their alleged involvement with torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Berkeley has a long history of protesting U.S. policy, but the city manager recommended that the council stop short of participating in the prosecution of Rumsfeld and his associates.
"Charging United States officials with crimes in a foreign country is of course a very serious matter," City Manager Phil Kamlarz wrote in a memo to the council. "The city does not have the resources to undertake this entirely new and serious responsibility."
He said the issue would take too much time for the city attorney's staff and expose the city to potential financial and legal liability.
Berkeley would join two Nobel Peace Prize winners and about three-dozen human rights groups around the world as co-plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and calls on German federal prosecutors to file charges.
Germany has a universal jurisdiction law, adopted after World War II, for prosecuting war criminals.
Councilwoman Dona Spring said she thought the chances were 50-50 that the council would pass the resolution.
Prosecuting Rumsfeld wasn't Berkeley's only foray into foreign policy Tuesday night. The council also considered resolutions condemning cluster weapons, human rights abuses in Haiti, immigration raids and the possibility of war with Iran.
The council was also slated to consider revoking permits for Pacific Steel, the nation's third-largest steel foundry, due to ongoing pollution problems.
Pacific Steel, which has been making steel parts for trucks and buses in West Berkeley for 75 years, has been under fire from several agencies for toxic emissions.
The city's environmental commission proposed revoking the foundry's permits, some of which were issued decades ago, and forcing the company to reapply for them under stricter standards.
A Pacific Steel spokeswoman said the company is doing everything the city and other groups have asked for, such as installing carbon filters on the smokestacks. The city should wait to see updated test results before taking further action, said spokeswoman Elisabeth Jewel.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District filed suit last fall and is trying to reach a settlement with Pacific Steel over compliance with air standards. Communities for a Better Environment struck an agreement last month with the company to reduce its toxic emissions by 2 tons and clean up its scrap metal supply.
Pacific Steel, which is family-owned, employs more than 600 mostly union workers.
kicker: berkeley
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/14/RUMSFELD.TMP
This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Wrap...
BERKELEY
City Council considers role in Rumsfeld war crimes case
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The Berkeley City Council was in the spotlight Tuesday night as it grappled with whether to become the first U.S. government entity to support the prosecution of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials for war crimes.
If the council approves the resolution, Berkeley would become a co-plaintiff if Germany files a criminal complaint against Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other U.S. officials for their alleged involvement with torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Berkeley has a long history of protesting U.S. policy, but the city manager recommended that the council stop short of participating in the prosecution of Rumsfeld and his associates.
"Charging United States officials with crimes in a foreign country is of course a very serious matter," City Manager Phil Kamlarz wrote in a memo to the council. "The city does not have the resources to undertake this entirely new and serious responsibility."
He said the issue would take too much time for the city attorney's staff and expose the city to potential financial and legal liability.
Berkeley would join two Nobel Peace Prize winners and about three-dozen human rights groups around the world as co-plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and calls on German federal prosecutors to file charges.
Germany has a universal jurisdiction law, adopted after World War II, for prosecuting war criminals.
Councilwoman Dona Spring said she thought the chances were 50-50 that the council would pass the resolution.
Prosecuting Rumsfeld wasn't Berkeley's only foray into foreign policy Tuesday night. The council also considered resolutions condemning cluster weapons, human rights abuses in Haiti, immigration raids and the possibility of war with Iran.
The council was also slated to consider revoking permits for Pacific Steel, the nation's third-largest steel foundry, due to ongoing pollution problems.
Pacific Steel, which has been making steel parts for trucks and buses in West Berkeley for 75 years, has been under fire from several agencies for toxic emissions.
The city's environmental commission proposed revoking the foundry's permits, some of which were issued decades ago, and forcing the company to reapply for them under stricter standards.
A Pacific Steel spokeswoman said the company is doing everything the city and other groups have asked for, such as installing carbon filters on the smokestacks. The city should wait to see updated test results before taking further action, said spokeswoman Elisabeth Jewel.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District filed suit last fall and is trying to reach a settlement with Pacific Steel over compliance with air standards. Communities for a Better Environment struck an agreement last month with the company to reduce its toxic emissions by 2 tons and clean up its scrap metal supply.
Pacific Steel, which is family-owned, employs more than 600 mostly union workers.
kicker: berkeley
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/14/RUMSFELD.TMP
This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Wrap...
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Senator Barbara Boxer and Habeas Corpus...
From Senator Barbara Boxer:
I am writing to tell you about my support of Senator Christopher Dodd’s Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, S.576. This comprehensive legislation would restore habeas corpus for those detained by the United States, ban evidence gained through torture, and reaffirm America’s commitment to the Geneva Conventions.
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized habeas corpus as “the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.” The principle of habeas corpus mandates that a person held in prison can petition a court to determine whether the imprisonment is lawful. This 900-year-old legal standard was effectively violated by the Bush Administration’s Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Reaffirming our commitment to the principles that were erased by the Military Commissions Act is extremely important. I believe that Congress must act to help repair the damage that has been caused by the Bush Administration’s harmful and misguided policies. I am proud to cosponsor and support the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 and will work for its passage and for tough anti-terrorist legislation that is consistent with American military doctrine and our nation’s guiding principles of fairness and justice.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
================================================
For more information on Senator Boxer's record and other information, please go to: http://www.boxer.senate.gov
To respond to this message, please click on the following link: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/feedback.cfm . This link will take you to a webpage where you can respond to messages that you receive from Senator Boxer’s office.
Wrap...
I am writing to tell you about my support of Senator Christopher Dodd’s Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, S.576. This comprehensive legislation would restore habeas corpus for those detained by the United States, ban evidence gained through torture, and reaffirm America’s commitment to the Geneva Conventions.
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized habeas corpus as “the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.” The principle of habeas corpus mandates that a person held in prison can petition a court to determine whether the imprisonment is lawful. This 900-year-old legal standard was effectively violated by the Bush Administration’s Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Reaffirming our commitment to the principles that were erased by the Military Commissions Act is extremely important. I believe that Congress must act to help repair the damage that has been caused by the Bush Administration’s harmful and misguided policies. I am proud to cosponsor and support the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 and will work for its passage and for tough anti-terrorist legislation that is consistent with American military doctrine and our nation’s guiding principles of fairness and justice.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
================================================
For more information on Senator Boxer's record and other information, please go to: http://www.boxer.senate.gov
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Wrap...
Action and Inaction...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
“The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers,” the New York Times reports. “Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans” about several U.S. Attorneys. Weeks later, they were forced out.
In related news, Attorney General Gonzales’ chief of staff Kyle Sampson resigned yesterday in the wake of the U.S. Attorney scandal. Sampson was involved in generating the list of prosecutors to fire.
More questions about Halliburton’s move to Dubai. Senate Commerce Committee member Byron Dorgan (D-ND) asked yesterday, “I want to know, is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Are they trying to run away from the obligation to pay U.S. taxes? Or are they trying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid the restrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibited countries like Iran?”
News of Scooter Libby’s guilty verdict has brought in $70,000 in Internet contributions in a week. Wealthy supporters like publisher Steve Forbes and lobbyist Wayne Berman plan to raise much more; actor Fred Thompson plans a Washington fundraiser that may bring in more than $100,000.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced a resolution yesterday to allow Al Gore to stage a global-warming concert on the Capitol grounds. Gore’s Live Earth event will feature seven major concerts on seven continents to help bring attention to global climate change.
And finally: Hagel brings out the comedian in political pundits. Reacting to Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-NE) bizarre non-announcement yesterday, the Hotline called the speech “the biggest letdown since ‘Joey’ spun off from ‘Friends.’” CNN reporter Dana Bash added, “This trip was all steak and no sizzle.”
Wrap...
Think Fast
“The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers,” the New York Times reports. “Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans” about several U.S. Attorneys. Weeks later, they were forced out.
In related news, Attorney General Gonzales’ chief of staff Kyle Sampson resigned yesterday in the wake of the U.S. Attorney scandal. Sampson was involved in generating the list of prosecutors to fire.
More questions about Halliburton’s move to Dubai. Senate Commerce Committee member Byron Dorgan (D-ND) asked yesterday, “I want to know, is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Are they trying to run away from the obligation to pay U.S. taxes? Or are they trying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid the restrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibited countries like Iran?”
News of Scooter Libby’s guilty verdict has brought in $70,000 in Internet contributions in a week. Wealthy supporters like publisher Steve Forbes and lobbyist Wayne Berman plan to raise much more; actor Fred Thompson plans a Washington fundraiser that may bring in more than $100,000.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced a resolution yesterday to allow Al Gore to stage a global-warming concert on the Capitol grounds. Gore’s Live Earth event will feature seven major concerts on seven continents to help bring attention to global climate change.
And finally: Hagel brings out the comedian in political pundits. Reacting to Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-NE) bizarre non-announcement yesterday, the Hotline called the speech “the biggest letdown since ‘Joey’ spun off from ‘Friends.’” CNN reporter Dana Bash added, “This trip was all steak and no sizzle.”
Wrap...
Monday, March 12, 2007
Janet Reno appears....
From Secrecy News :
JANET RENO ON LEAKS (2000)
The steps by which the Justice Department conducts investigations of unauthorized disclosures of classified information ("leaks") were described by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 2000 testimony before a closed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
At a moment when some, such as Senator Jon Kyl, are proposing to enact new statutory penalties against leaks, it is noteworthy that the Attorney General concluded that such penalties are unnecessary."We believe that the criminal statutes currently on the books are adequate to allow us to prosecute almost all leak cases,"she testified.
Significantly, "We have never been forced to decline a prosecution solely because the criminal statutes were not broad enough."(A similar judgment was offered by Attorney General JohnAshcroft in a 2002 report to Congress: "I conclude that current statutes provide a legal basis to prosecute those who engage in unauthorized disclosures, if they can be identified.")
Ms. Reno's testimony, formally released under the Freedom of Information Act last week, provides perhaps the best single overview of the Justice Department's handling of leak cases, from the initial "crime report" (sometimes called a "crimes report") that advises the Justice Department of the leak, to the agency's submission of answers to eleven specific questions about the leak, to the difficulties of conducting an investigation and the Department's decision whether to prosecute.
"While we are prepared to prosecute vigorously those who are responsible for leaks of classified information,... I also want to say that the Department of Justice believes that criminal prosecution is not the most effective way to address the leak problem," she said."In addition to the difficulties of identifying leakers, bringing leak prosecutions is highly complex, requiring overcoming defenses such as apparent authority, improper classification, and First Amendment concerns, and prosecutions are likely to result in more leaks in the course of litigation."
"In general, we believe that the better way to address the problem of leaks is to try to prevent them through stricter personnel security practices, including prohibitions of unauthorized contacts with the press, regular security reminders, and through administrative sanctions, such as revocation of clearances," she told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Committee proceeded to endorse a new anti-leak statute against her advice. It was enacted by Congress and then vetoed in November 2000 by President Clinton. The Justice Department Office of Public Affairs released the Reno testimony in October 2003 to reporters from the Washington Post and the Associated Press, who briefly quoted it in passing. But others who requested a copy, including Secrecy News, were told to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
Following a pointless and wasteful three-and-a-half year"review" by the Justice Department, the testimony has now been formally released under the FOIA without redaction. See: http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/renoleaks.html
But leak controversies remain ever green, even aside from the proposed Kyl Amendment, the ongoing prosecution of two former AIPAC officials for allegedly mishandling classified information, and so on.The New York Sun reported that Rep. Tom Davis, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, rebuked the Justice Department last week for failing to properly account for leak investigations that had been terminated.
See "Gonzales Said To Stonewall a GOP Query" by Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, March 12: http://www.nysun.com/article/50228
Wrap...
JANET RENO ON LEAKS (2000)
The steps by which the Justice Department conducts investigations of unauthorized disclosures of classified information ("leaks") were described by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 2000 testimony before a closed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
At a moment when some, such as Senator Jon Kyl, are proposing to enact new statutory penalties against leaks, it is noteworthy that the Attorney General concluded that such penalties are unnecessary."We believe that the criminal statutes currently on the books are adequate to allow us to prosecute almost all leak cases,"she testified.
Significantly, "We have never been forced to decline a prosecution solely because the criminal statutes were not broad enough."(A similar judgment was offered by Attorney General JohnAshcroft in a 2002 report to Congress: "I conclude that current statutes provide a legal basis to prosecute those who engage in unauthorized disclosures, if they can be identified.")
Ms. Reno's testimony, formally released under the Freedom of Information Act last week, provides perhaps the best single overview of the Justice Department's handling of leak cases, from the initial "crime report" (sometimes called a "crimes report") that advises the Justice Department of the leak, to the agency's submission of answers to eleven specific questions about the leak, to the difficulties of conducting an investigation and the Department's decision whether to prosecute.
"While we are prepared to prosecute vigorously those who are responsible for leaks of classified information,... I also want to say that the Department of Justice believes that criminal prosecution is not the most effective way to address the leak problem," she said."In addition to the difficulties of identifying leakers, bringing leak prosecutions is highly complex, requiring overcoming defenses such as apparent authority, improper classification, and First Amendment concerns, and prosecutions are likely to result in more leaks in the course of litigation."
"In general, we believe that the better way to address the problem of leaks is to try to prevent them through stricter personnel security practices, including prohibitions of unauthorized contacts with the press, regular security reminders, and through administrative sanctions, such as revocation of clearances," she told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Committee proceeded to endorse a new anti-leak statute against her advice. It was enacted by Congress and then vetoed in November 2000 by President Clinton. The Justice Department Office of Public Affairs released the Reno testimony in October 2003 to reporters from the Washington Post and the Associated Press, who briefly quoted it in passing. But others who requested a copy, including Secrecy News, were told to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
Following a pointless and wasteful three-and-a-half year"review" by the Justice Department, the testimony has now been formally released under the FOIA without redaction. See: http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/renoleaks.html
But leak controversies remain ever green, even aside from the proposed Kyl Amendment, the ongoing prosecution of two former AIPAC officials for allegedly mishandling classified information, and so on.The New York Sun reported that Rep. Tom Davis, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, rebuked the Justice Department last week for failing to properly account for leak investigations that had been terminated.
See "Gonzales Said To Stonewall a GOP Query" by Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, March 12: http://www.nysun.com/article/50228
Wrap...
From Iraq fallback plan to tomatoes....
From American Progress:
Think Fast
The Pentagon has “begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters” in case the President’s escalation fails. The new strategy is more in line with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and is “based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s.”
Tourism to the United States has dropped by 17 percent since 2001. “Two-thirds of respondents worried they could be held back at airports because of a mistake in form filling or a misstatement to immigration officials. Half said officials were rude and that they feared them more than the threat of terrorism or crime.”
Some officials within the White House are calling on President Bush to uphold his pledge to “have the highest of high standards” when it comes to granting pardons. “What you saw was a vice president’s office that was out of control,” a former White House staffer tells Newsweek, arguing against pardoning Scooter Libby.
“A new federal rule intended to keep illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid has instead shut out tens of thousands of United States citizens who have had difficulty complying with requirements to show birth certificates and other documents proving their citizenship.”
The Army expects to have an “annual shortage of 3,000 [midlevel] officers through 2013 as it increases its ranks by 40,000 soldiers.” The Government Accountability Office notes that “officer retention has been a problem for the Army, in part because it “continues to remain heavily involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.’”
Former U.S. attorney John McKay tells Newsweek that after he was fired in December, he received a call from the Justice Department asking if he intended to go public: “He was offering me a deal: you stay silent and the attorney general won’t say anything bad about you.”
And finally: They don’t have habeas, but they do have hibiscus. “A select group of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been allowed to plant gardens for the first time, a military spokesman said. Prisoners in Camp 4, which holds the ‘most compliant’ detainees, started growing tomatoes several weeks ago in concrete soil-filled planters.”
Wrap...
Think Fast
The Pentagon has “begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters” in case the President’s escalation fails. The new strategy is more in line with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and is “based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s.”
Tourism to the United States has dropped by 17 percent since 2001. “Two-thirds of respondents worried they could be held back at airports because of a mistake in form filling or a misstatement to immigration officials. Half said officials were rude and that they feared them more than the threat of terrorism or crime.”
Some officials within the White House are calling on President Bush to uphold his pledge to “have the highest of high standards” when it comes to granting pardons. “What you saw was a vice president’s office that was out of control,” a former White House staffer tells Newsweek, arguing against pardoning Scooter Libby.
“A new federal rule intended to keep illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid has instead shut out tens of thousands of United States citizens who have had difficulty complying with requirements to show birth certificates and other documents proving their citizenship.”
The Army expects to have an “annual shortage of 3,000 [midlevel] officers through 2013 as it increases its ranks by 40,000 soldiers.” The Government Accountability Office notes that “officer retention has been a problem for the Army, in part because it “continues to remain heavily involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.’”
Former U.S. attorney John McKay tells Newsweek that after he was fired in December, he received a call from the Justice Department asking if he intended to go public: “He was offering me a deal: you stay silent and the attorney general won’t say anything bad about you.”
And finally: They don’t have habeas, but they do have hibiscus. “A select group of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been allowed to plant gardens for the first time, a military spokesman said. Prisoners in Camp 4, which holds the ‘most compliant’ detainees, started growing tomatoes several weeks ago in concrete soil-filled planters.”
Wrap...
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Halliburton moves to Dubai....
From dpa German Press Agency via Raw Story:
US oil services giant Halliburton plans switch to Dubai
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday March 11, 2007
Manama- The Houston, Texas-based multinational oilfield services Halliburton Energy Services plans to move its cooperate office to Dubai, it was revealed Sunday. Halliburtons chairman, president, and chief executive officerDavid J. Lesar revealed the plans in Manama on the sidelines of the opening of the 15th Society of Petroleum Engineers Middle East Oil &Gas Show and Conference (MEOS 2007).
Lesar said the move would help the company focus on the MiddleEast, as he would lead efforts to increase Halliburton business in the Eastern Hemisphere."The Middle east would be the seat of our operations," said Lesar."As we invest more heavily in our Eastern Hemisphere presence, we will continue to build upon our leading position in the North American gas-focused market through our excellent mix of technology, reservoir knowledge and an experienced workforce." He said the opening of a headquarters in Dubai was the next step in a strategic plan announced in 2006 to focus on expanding Halliburton customer relations with national oil companies.
[cont at www.rawstory.com ]
Wrap....
US oil services giant Halliburton plans switch to Dubai
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday March 11, 2007
Manama- The Houston, Texas-based multinational oilfield services Halliburton Energy Services plans to move its cooperate office to Dubai, it was revealed Sunday. Halliburtons chairman, president, and chief executive officerDavid J. Lesar revealed the plans in Manama on the sidelines of the opening of the 15th Society of Petroleum Engineers Middle East Oil &Gas Show and Conference (MEOS 2007).
Lesar said the move would help the company focus on the MiddleEast, as he would lead efforts to increase Halliburton business in the Eastern Hemisphere."The Middle east would be the seat of our operations," said Lesar."As we invest more heavily in our Eastern Hemisphere presence, we will continue to build upon our leading position in the North American gas-focused market through our excellent mix of technology, reservoir knowledge and an experienced workforce." He said the opening of a headquarters in Dubai was the next step in a strategic plan announced in 2006 to focus on expanding Halliburton customer relations with national oil companies.
[cont at www.rawstory.com ]
Wrap....
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Subtle and witty....with a bite...
Here's a recommendation:
Go immediately and read http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/
His blog is entitled "Connecting. The. Dots" and indeed it does. Even more interesting is his bio on the left side of the screen. He's talking about politicians and sex today as pertains to Dems and Repubs. Very short, very very good.
Wrap...
Go immediately and read http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/
His blog is entitled "Connecting. The. Dots" and indeed it does. Even more interesting is his bio on the left side of the screen. He's talking about politicians and sex today as pertains to Dems and Repubs. Very short, very very good.
Wrap...
Friday, March 09, 2007
How very damned convenient!
From truthout.org :
Missing Tape of Padilla Interrogation Raises Questions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030907R.shtml
A videotape showing Pentagon officials' final interrogation of al-Qaeda suspect Jose Padilla is missing, raising questions about whether federal prosecutors have lost other recordings and evidence in the case.
*****************************************
[Well, if it's deep-sixed in the Atlantic, one cannot expect to find it again.]
Wrap...
Missing Tape of Padilla Interrogation Raises Questions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030907R.shtml
A videotape showing Pentagon officials' final interrogation of al-Qaeda suspect Jose Padilla is missing, raising questions about whether federal prosecutors have lost other recordings and evidence in the case.
*****************************************
[Well, if it's deep-sixed in the Atlantic, one cannot expect to find it again.]
Wrap...
Rove lies through his teeth....
From American Progress:
ETHICS -- FORMER CLINTON CHIEF OF STAFF REBUTS ROVE CLAIM THAT CLINTON PURGED PROSECUTORS TOO:
At a speech in Little Rock yesterday, Karl Rove described the Bush administration's purge of federal prosecutors as "normal and ordinary," claiming that Clinton did the same thing. "Clinton, when he came in, replaced all 93 U.S. attorneys," Rove said. "When we came in, we ultimately replace most all 93 U.S. attorneys -- there are some still left from the Clinton era in place."
Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta told The Progress Report that Rove's claim is "pure fiction." "Replacing most U.S. attorneys when a new administration comes in -- as we did in 1993 and the Bush administration did in 2001 -- is not unusual. But the Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as pure political retribution," he said.
Earlier this week, Mary Jo White, who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993-2002, also stated that the Bush administration's prosecutor purge is unprecedented in "modern history." She told NPR, "[T]hroughout modern history, my understanding is, you did not change the U.S. attorney during an administration, unless there was some evidence of misconduct or other really quite significant cause to do so. And the expectation was, so long as that was absent, that you would serve out your full four years or eight years as U.S. attorney."
As White noted, attorneys need to serve "without fear or favor and in an absolutely apolitical way." By firing well-respected federal prosecutors and replacing them with Republican loyalists, the Bush administration has politicized the judicial system.
Wrap...
ETHICS -- FORMER CLINTON CHIEF OF STAFF REBUTS ROVE CLAIM THAT CLINTON PURGED PROSECUTORS TOO:
At a speech in Little Rock yesterday, Karl Rove described the Bush administration's purge of federal prosecutors as "normal and ordinary," claiming that Clinton did the same thing. "Clinton, when he came in, replaced all 93 U.S. attorneys," Rove said. "When we came in, we ultimately replace most all 93 U.S. attorneys -- there are some still left from the Clinton era in place."
Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta told The Progress Report that Rove's claim is "pure fiction." "Replacing most U.S. attorneys when a new administration comes in -- as we did in 1993 and the Bush administration did in 2001 -- is not unusual. But the Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as pure political retribution," he said.
Earlier this week, Mary Jo White, who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993-2002, also stated that the Bush administration's prosecutor purge is unprecedented in "modern history." She told NPR, "[T]hroughout modern history, my understanding is, you did not change the U.S. attorney during an administration, unless there was some evidence of misconduct or other really quite significant cause to do so. And the expectation was, so long as that was absent, that you would serve out your full four years or eight years as U.S. attorney."
As White noted, attorneys need to serve "without fear or favor and in an absolutely apolitical way." By firing well-respected federal prosecutors and replacing them with Republican loyalists, the Bush administration has politicized the judicial system.
Wrap...
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Hot damn! Waxman has Fitz on March 16!
From truthout.org:
BREAKING Waxman Asks Fitzgerald to Testify Before Congress
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030807Z.shtml
Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday he wants Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to testify before his committee about his investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson's identity. Plame-Wilson, Waxman's office said, has agreed to testify before Congress on March 16.
Wrap...
BREAKING Waxman Asks Fitzgerald to Testify Before Congress
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030807Z.shtml
Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday he wants Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to testify before his committee about his investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson's identity. Plame-Wilson, Waxman's office said, has agreed to testify before Congress on March 16.
Wrap...
If these kids were puppies, shit would hit the fan...but they're only kids, so who cares?
From truthout.org :
Children Left Stranded After Migrants Held in Factory Raid
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030807P.shtml
In New Bedford, Massachusetts, 100 or more children were left stranded at schools and day care centers after their parents were rounded up by federal authorities in a factory raid where hundreds of illegal immigrants worked to produce supplies for the US military.
"We're continuing to get stories today about infants that were left behind," said Corinn Williams, director of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts. "It's been a widespread humanitarian crisis here in New Bedford."
Wrap...
Children Left Stranded After Migrants Held in Factory Raid
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030807P.shtml
In New Bedford, Massachusetts, 100 or more children were left stranded at schools and day care centers after their parents were rounded up by federal authorities in a factory raid where hundreds of illegal immigrants worked to produce supplies for the US military.
"We're continuing to get stories today about infants that were left behind," said Corinn Williams, director of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts. "It's been a widespread humanitarian crisis here in New Bedford."
Wrap...
Fling that beer over here!
From AP via San Francisco Chronicle:
BREWING INGENUITY
Duke grad builds beer-tossing fridge
Associated Press
When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.
"I conceived it right after I got out," said Cornwell, a May 2006 graduate from Huntington, N.Y. "I missed the college scene. It embodies the college spirit that I didn't want to let go of."
It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.
With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car's keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge's catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet -- "far enough to get to the couch," he said.
Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses "soft hands" to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.
In developing his beer catapult, Cornwell said he dented a few walls and came close to accidentally throwing a can through his television. He's since fine-tuned the machine to land a beer where he usually sits at home, on what he called "a right-angle couch system.
"For now, the machine throws only cans, although Cornwell has thought about making a version that can throw a bottle. The most beer he has run through the machine was at a party, when he launched a couple of 24-can cases. "I did launch a lot watching the Super Bowl," he said. "My friends are the reason I built it. I told them about the idea and hyped it so much and I had to go through with it."
A video featuring the device is a hit on the Internet, where more than 600,000 people have watched it at metacafe.com, earning Cornwell more than $3,000 from the Web site.
Cornwell said he has talked to a brewing company about the machine, but right now only one exists. Asked if he might start building some for sale, he said: "I'm keeping that option open, depending on interest."
When Cornwell was a student at Duke -- an elite, private university in Durham -- he participated in the engineering school's robotic basketball contests, said mechanical engineering Professor Bob Kielb. He said students tried to build a robot that could retrieve a pingpong ball and toss it into a small hoop."He always did well in it," Kielb said. "He came up with completely unique ideas."
On the Net: Cornwell's Web Site -- http://www.duke.edu/jwc13/index.html
Wrap...
BREWING INGENUITY
Duke grad builds beer-tossing fridge
Associated Press
When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.
"I conceived it right after I got out," said Cornwell, a May 2006 graduate from Huntington, N.Y. "I missed the college scene. It embodies the college spirit that I didn't want to let go of."
It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.
With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car's keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge's catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet -- "far enough to get to the couch," he said.
Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses "soft hands" to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.
In developing his beer catapult, Cornwell said he dented a few walls and came close to accidentally throwing a can through his television. He's since fine-tuned the machine to land a beer where he usually sits at home, on what he called "a right-angle couch system.
"For now, the machine throws only cans, although Cornwell has thought about making a version that can throw a bottle. The most beer he has run through the machine was at a party, when he launched a couple of 24-can cases. "I did launch a lot watching the Super Bowl," he said. "My friends are the reason I built it. I told them about the idea and hyped it so much and I had to go through with it."
A video featuring the device is a hit on the Internet, where more than 600,000 people have watched it at metacafe.com, earning Cornwell more than $3,000 from the Web site.
Cornwell said he has talked to a brewing company about the machine, but right now only one exists. Asked if he might start building some for sale, he said: "I'm keeping that option open, depending on interest."
When Cornwell was a student at Duke -- an elite, private university in Durham -- he participated in the engineering school's robotic basketball contests, said mechanical engineering Professor Bob Kielb. He said students tried to build a robot that could retrieve a pingpong ball and toss it into a small hoop."He always did well in it," Kielb said. "He came up with completely unique ideas."
On the Net: Cornwell's Web Site -- http://www.duke.edu/jwc13/index.html
Wrap...
Out from under the "righteous" Nanny people...
From the Village Voice:
8 Million Stories
Don't Tell Bloomberg
But New Yorkers can smoke to their lungs' content at the U.N.'s Vienna Cafe
by Mara Altman
March 6th, 2007 5:34 PM
Stepping into the smoke-filled basement Viennese Café at the United Nations takes a surprised visitor back to the years when New Yorkers used payphones, hailed Checker cabs, and inhaled cigarettes wherever they pleased. Each of the four dozen or so small white marble tables offers an anachronistic centerpiece from bygone days: an aluminum ashtray. The café lies beyond security checkpoints; no tourists are permitted there. Delegates and staff members grab a snack, puff away, and chat while they wait for meetings in the multiple 100-plus seat halls flanking the café. Over the delegates and U.N. staff members' heads, small plumes billow upward and unite so seamlessly that warring factions around the world should take note from the example—
continue reading at : www.villagevoice.com
Wrap...
8 Million Stories
Don't Tell Bloomberg
But New Yorkers can smoke to their lungs' content at the U.N.'s Vienna Cafe
by Mara Altman
March 6th, 2007 5:34 PM
Stepping into the smoke-filled basement Viennese Café at the United Nations takes a surprised visitor back to the years when New Yorkers used payphones, hailed Checker cabs, and inhaled cigarettes wherever they pleased. Each of the four dozen or so small white marble tables offers an anachronistic centerpiece from bygone days: an aluminum ashtray. The café lies beyond security checkpoints; no tourists are permitted there. Delegates and staff members grab a snack, puff away, and chat while they wait for meetings in the multiple 100-plus seat halls flanking the café. Over the delegates and U.N. staff members' heads, small plumes billow upward and unite so seamlessly that warring factions around the world should take note from the example—
continue reading at : www.villagevoice.com
Wrap...
A Great Variety of Films and Books...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Jancee Dunn's first novel, IN BETWEEN DAYS, the humorous and nostalgic story of a 30-something New Yorker who is forced to relive her 1980s past when she moves back into her childhood home after getting dumped by her husband and leaving her job, to Jill Schwartzman for Villard, in a two-book deal, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (world English).
Former private school headmaster Selden Edwards's debut FIN DE SIECLE, about a 1970s rock star dislocated in time back to turn-of-the-century Vienna, where he encounters some of notable people of the time and meets his ancestors (including the young father he never knew), to Ben Sevier at Dutton, in a pre-empt, for publication in spring 2008, by Scott Miller at Trident Media Group (world).
GENERAL/OTHER:
NYT writer Hilary de Vries's THE COOKING LESSONS, about four sisters negotiating their relationships after the death of their mother, to Trena Keating at Dutton, by Molly Friedrich at the Friedrich Agency (NA).Calling Out author Rae Meadows's NO ONE EVER TELLS, about a magazine editor who becomes increasingly obsessed with the murder case of a local co-ed and the leading suspect, a college student from her Ohio hometown, to Kate Nitze at MacAdam/Cage, in a nice deal, by Elisabeth Weed at Trident Media Group (world).
Human rights activist Rupert Isaacson's THE HORSE BOY, an account of how he gained entree into his autistic five-year old son's world through a horse and chronicling the subsequent journey they will be taking together through Mongolia on horseback -- a father-son story, a story of East meets West, and a story about the fascinating and mysterious connection between humans and animals, to Judy Clain at Little, Brown, at auction (NA).UK rights to Eleo Gordon at Viking UK, at auction, both by Elizabeth Sheinkman at Curtis Brown UK (UK/Commonwealth, excl. Australia).French rights to Albin Michel in France; auctions are under way in Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Japan. The original US and UK submissions were made about two weeks ago. The author intends to use his proceeds to build a dedicated autism school in Austin, TX.Elizabeth@curtisbrown.co.ukFilm: nick@curtisbrown.co.ukTranslation: betsy@curtisbrown.co.uk
Elizabeth Little's BITING THE WAX TADPOLE: Adventures in Word Travel, using examples from languages dead, difficult, and just plain made-up, a multilingual grammar fiend shares all of the humorous "dirty bits" - irregular verbs, unusual spellings, and evolutionary quirks - that give languages, and cultures, their character, to Becky Kraemer at Melville House, in a nice deal (World). bk@mhpbooks.com
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Lauren McLaughlin's comic debut CYCLER, pitched as Orlando meets Freaky Friday, about a likeable and seemingly normal teen girl with a secret condition: she changes into a 17 year old boy for four days out of every month, and now her boy self - tired of being suppressed - is plotting his own agenda with explosive results, to Mallory Loehr at Random House Children's, at auction, for two books, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).
COOKING:
CIAO ITALIA PRONTO! author and host of the public television show Ciao Italia Mary Ann Esposito's CIAO ITALIA BIG FIVE: Five Ingredient Recipes from an Italian Kitchen, to Michael Flamini at St. Martin's, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (World).
HEALTH:
Science and medicine journalist Maryn McKenna's SUPERBUG: The Death and Life of Drug-Resistant Staph and the Danger of a World without Antibiotics, again to Liz Stein at Free Press, for publication in summer 2009, by Susan Raihofer at David Black Literary Agency (world).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Former Fort Worth Star-Telegram senior writer and books editor Jeff Guinn's LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG: THE TRUE STORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE, drawing on interviews with survivors and witnesses for a narrative of the brief but violent careers of America's best-known Depression-era bank robbers, to Roger Labrie at Simon & Schuster, by Jim Donovan at Jim Donovan Literary.
ON THE SIDE, THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD TABLE author Jessica Harris's HIGH ON THE HOG: African Americans and Food, a culinary history that divulges never-before-told tales of our country's rich black culinary past, to Kathy Belden at Bloomsbury, by Susan Ginsburg at Writers House (NA).
Journalist and originator of the website RegretTheError.com Craig Silverman's REGRET THE ERROR: How Media Mistakes Pollute and Endanger the Press, an Eats, Shoots and Leaves for the media-centric, with a foreword by blogger Jeff Jarvis, listing hundreds of humorous and shocking media errors, analyzing the history of media mistakes, and examining why today's media climate makes it imperative that the press meet higher standards of accuracy, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press, for publication in fall 2007, by Don Sedgwick of the Transatlantic Literary Agency (world English, excl. Canada).pturner@sterlingpub.comwordbyword@eastlink.ca
MEMOIR:
NPR commentator Lauretta Hannon's CRACKER QUEEN: Stories of a Jagged, Joyful Life, about growing up in the South on the wrong side of the tracks, a look at how bad choices and hard living have brought Hannon unexpected gifts, resulting in a perspective she terms "the Cracker Queen way of life," to Erin Moore of Gotham, at auction, by Joanne Wyckoff of the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency.jwyckoff@zshliterary.com
Former Mexican president Vicente Fox's memoir REVOLUTION OF HOPE, written with friend and public relations consultant Rob Allyn, covering his relationships with many world leaders, including Castro and Bush, to Viking, for publication in October 2007, by Jan Miller at Dupree Miller & Associates (who tells the AP it was "a VERY nice deal").
FILM:
Film rights to Valerie Plame's unpublished FAIR GAME (if, and once approved by the CIA) and life rights for Plame and husband Joe Wilson, to Warner Bros., with Akiva Goldsman at Weed Road and Jerry Zucker and Janet Zucker at Zucker Productions producing.
Author BN Discover winner COOKOFF: Recipe Fever in America Amy Sutherland's two nonfiction books KICKED, BITTEN AND SCRATCHED: Life and Lessons at the World's Premiere School For Exotic Animal Trainers and WHAT SHAMU TAUGHT ME ABOUT A HAPPY MARRIAGE (AND LIFE), optioned to First Look Studios with Kristin Hahn, Dana Adam Shapiro and David Rubin producing and Todd Louiso and Jay Kenoff set to adapt, by Mary Alice Kier and Anna Cottle of Cine/Lit Representation, on behalf of the Jane Chelius Literary Agency.cinelit@msn.com
UK:
Selina O'Grady's A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN THE TIME OF JESUS (Book 1) and THE ORIGINS OF ENGLAND (Book 2), a history of the world in the first thirty-six years of the first millennium, a time of competing beliefs and competing empires and a seminal period in the history of the West, to Toby Lundy at Atlantic Books, by Ivan Mulcahy (World). louisebrice@groveatlantic.co.uk
Nicholas Clee's ECLIPSE, about the greatest and most celebrated racehorse of his, and arguably any, period in history, who changed the lives of all those associated with him, to Selina Walker at Transworld, in a very nice deal, by Ros Edwards of Edwards Fuglewicz Literary Agency (World English).ros@efla.co.uk
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Jancee Dunn's first novel, IN BETWEEN DAYS, the humorous and nostalgic story of a 30-something New Yorker who is forced to relive her 1980s past when she moves back into her childhood home after getting dumped by her husband and leaving her job, to Jill Schwartzman for Villard, in a two-book deal, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (world English).
Former private school headmaster Selden Edwards's debut FIN DE SIECLE, about a 1970s rock star dislocated in time back to turn-of-the-century Vienna, where he encounters some of notable people of the time and meets his ancestors (including the young father he never knew), to Ben Sevier at Dutton, in a pre-empt, for publication in spring 2008, by Scott Miller at Trident Media Group (world).
GENERAL/OTHER:
NYT writer Hilary de Vries's THE COOKING LESSONS, about four sisters negotiating their relationships after the death of their mother, to Trena Keating at Dutton, by Molly Friedrich at the Friedrich Agency (NA).Calling Out author Rae Meadows's NO ONE EVER TELLS, about a magazine editor who becomes increasingly obsessed with the murder case of a local co-ed and the leading suspect, a college student from her Ohio hometown, to Kate Nitze at MacAdam/Cage, in a nice deal, by Elisabeth Weed at Trident Media Group (world).
Human rights activist Rupert Isaacson's THE HORSE BOY, an account of how he gained entree into his autistic five-year old son's world through a horse and chronicling the subsequent journey they will be taking together through Mongolia on horseback -- a father-son story, a story of East meets West, and a story about the fascinating and mysterious connection between humans and animals, to Judy Clain at Little, Brown, at auction (NA).UK rights to Eleo Gordon at Viking UK, at auction, both by Elizabeth Sheinkman at Curtis Brown UK (UK/Commonwealth, excl. Australia).French rights to Albin Michel in France; auctions are under way in Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Japan. The original US and UK submissions were made about two weeks ago. The author intends to use his proceeds to build a dedicated autism school in Austin, TX.Elizabeth@curtisbrown.co.ukFilm: nick@curtisbrown.co.ukTranslation: betsy@curtisbrown.co.uk
Elizabeth Little's BITING THE WAX TADPOLE: Adventures in Word Travel, using examples from languages dead, difficult, and just plain made-up, a multilingual grammar fiend shares all of the humorous "dirty bits" - irregular verbs, unusual spellings, and evolutionary quirks - that give languages, and cultures, their character, to Becky Kraemer at Melville House, in a nice deal (World). bk@mhpbooks.com
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Lauren McLaughlin's comic debut CYCLER, pitched as Orlando meets Freaky Friday, about a likeable and seemingly normal teen girl with a secret condition: she changes into a 17 year old boy for four days out of every month, and now her boy self - tired of being suppressed - is plotting his own agenda with explosive results, to Mallory Loehr at Random House Children's, at auction, for two books, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).
COOKING:
CIAO ITALIA PRONTO! author and host of the public television show Ciao Italia Mary Ann Esposito's CIAO ITALIA BIG FIVE: Five Ingredient Recipes from an Italian Kitchen, to Michael Flamini at St. Martin's, by Jane Dystel at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (World).
HEALTH:
Science and medicine journalist Maryn McKenna's SUPERBUG: The Death and Life of Drug-Resistant Staph and the Danger of a World without Antibiotics, again to Liz Stein at Free Press, for publication in summer 2009, by Susan Raihofer at David Black Literary Agency (world).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Former Fort Worth Star-Telegram senior writer and books editor Jeff Guinn's LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG: THE TRUE STORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE, drawing on interviews with survivors and witnesses for a narrative of the brief but violent careers of America's best-known Depression-era bank robbers, to Roger Labrie at Simon & Schuster, by Jim Donovan at Jim Donovan Literary.
ON THE SIDE, THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD TABLE author Jessica Harris's HIGH ON THE HOG: African Americans and Food, a culinary history that divulges never-before-told tales of our country's rich black culinary past, to Kathy Belden at Bloomsbury, by Susan Ginsburg at Writers House (NA).
Journalist and originator of the website RegretTheError.com Craig Silverman's REGRET THE ERROR: How Media Mistakes Pollute and Endanger the Press, an Eats, Shoots and Leaves for the media-centric, with a foreword by blogger Jeff Jarvis, listing hundreds of humorous and shocking media errors, analyzing the history of media mistakes, and examining why today's media climate makes it imperative that the press meet higher standards of accuracy, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press, for publication in fall 2007, by Don Sedgwick of the Transatlantic Literary Agency (world English, excl. Canada).pturner@sterlingpub.comwordbyword@eastlink.ca
MEMOIR:
NPR commentator Lauretta Hannon's CRACKER QUEEN: Stories of a Jagged, Joyful Life, about growing up in the South on the wrong side of the tracks, a look at how bad choices and hard living have brought Hannon unexpected gifts, resulting in a perspective she terms "the Cracker Queen way of life," to Erin Moore of Gotham, at auction, by Joanne Wyckoff of the Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency.jwyckoff@zshliterary.com
Former Mexican president Vicente Fox's memoir REVOLUTION OF HOPE, written with friend and public relations consultant Rob Allyn, covering his relationships with many world leaders, including Castro and Bush, to Viking, for publication in October 2007, by Jan Miller at Dupree Miller & Associates (who tells the AP it was "a VERY nice deal").
FILM:
Film rights to Valerie Plame's unpublished FAIR GAME (if, and once approved by the CIA) and life rights for Plame and husband Joe Wilson, to Warner Bros., with Akiva Goldsman at Weed Road and Jerry Zucker and Janet Zucker at Zucker Productions producing.
Author BN Discover winner COOKOFF: Recipe Fever in America Amy Sutherland's two nonfiction books KICKED, BITTEN AND SCRATCHED: Life and Lessons at the World's Premiere School For Exotic Animal Trainers and WHAT SHAMU TAUGHT ME ABOUT A HAPPY MARRIAGE (AND LIFE), optioned to First Look Studios with Kristin Hahn, Dana Adam Shapiro and David Rubin producing and Todd Louiso and Jay Kenoff set to adapt, by Mary Alice Kier and Anna Cottle of Cine/Lit Representation, on behalf of the Jane Chelius Literary Agency.cinelit@msn.com
UK:
Selina O'Grady's A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN THE TIME OF JESUS (Book 1) and THE ORIGINS OF ENGLAND (Book 2), a history of the world in the first thirty-six years of the first millennium, a time of competing beliefs and competing empires and a seminal period in the history of the West, to Toby Lundy at Atlantic Books, by Ivan Mulcahy (World). louisebrice@groveatlantic.co.uk
Nicholas Clee's ECLIPSE, about the greatest and most celebrated racehorse of his, and arguably any, period in history, who changed the lives of all those associated with him, to Selina Walker at Transworld, in a very nice deal, by Ros Edwards of Edwards Fuglewicz Literary Agency (World English).ros@efla.co.uk
Wrap...
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Cowardly DC Dems try to intimidate WA legislature!
From Tom Paine.com :
Trampling On The Grassroots
Dave Lindorff
March 07, 2007
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based investigative journalist. His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net and at www.counterpunch.org. His latest book, co-authored with Barbara Olshansky, is The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office.
In the state of Washington, it is the people versus Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party leadership. At issue is a bill, S8016, submitted in the state’s senate by freshman state Senator Eric Oemig, which would call on the U.S. Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors against the Constitution and the people of the United States and of the state of Washington.
The measure, which would take the form of a joint resolution by the two houses of the Washington state legislature, accords with the instructions laid out by Founder Thomas Jefferson, who, in his Manual of the Rules of the House of Representatives laid out state joint resolutions as an alternative route for initiating presidential impeachment proceedings in the House, in addition to the more usual route of a member submitting a bill of impeachment.
Jefferson’s prescient thinking was that if Congress, by reason of political cowardice or inattention, ever proved unwilling or unable to initiate impeachment when it was called for, state legislators, far from Capitol Hill and closer to the people, could do it for them.
But two unprincipled and devious Democratic members of Washington’s congressional delegation, Sen. Pat Murray and Rep. Jay Inslee, are undermining Jefferson’s carefully designed fail-safe system by pressuring Democratic state legislators to kill Sen. Oemig’s bill.
The Seattle Times reports in a March 2 article that Murray and Inslee are telling Democrats in the state senate to kill the impeachment bill on the grounds that it would lead to “divisiveness” in Washington, and that it would impede the “Democratic agenda” in Congress.
Forget grave spinning! This wholly inappropriate interference in state affairs by the state's two leading national political figures must have Jefferson soiling his breeches!
Clearly, Murray and Inslee have decided to abandon their constituents in the state of Washington, a majority of whom want this criminal president impeached, and are instead doing the bidding of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who have completely lost touch with the nation’s voters and with their own sense of principle. But this battle is not over.
The grassroots movement in Washington, which has led to Sen. Oemig’s bill getting as far as a hearing in the Senate’s Government Operations and Elections Committee, is growing rapidly. The Citizens Committee for Impeachment in Olympia, with almost no money and no press coverage, brought 900 people to a rally a week before the committee hearing, and hundreds more to the capitol building on the day of the hearing.
A massive phone and letter-writing campaign to committee members and state senators is now underway to insure that the bill goes to a vote in the full Senate. If Democratic state legislators know what is good for them, they will send Murray and Inslee packing back to Washington and will vote to defend the Constitution and their constituents by approving Sen. Oemig’s bill in both houses and sending his resolution to the House, forcing Pelosi to put impeachment back on the House agenda where it belongs.
After all, what is this supposed concern about “divisiveness”? The nation is mired in a criminal war that has killed 3,200 American troops and injured another 52,000, many of them from Washington state. The president has trashed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and is bankrupting the nation, wasting money that could be helping Washington residents and other Americans. Washington, D.C. today is not too divisive; it is not divisive enough!
As for that Democratic agenda, just how do Murray and Inslee expect anything passed by the current Congress to make its way into law if the president is free to continue, in direct violation of Article I and II of the Constitution, to invalidate the laws passed by the Congress through his use of what he calls “signing statements”?
Wrap...
Trampling On The Grassroots
Dave Lindorff
March 07, 2007
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based investigative journalist. His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net and at www.counterpunch.org. His latest book, co-authored with Barbara Olshansky, is The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office.
In the state of Washington, it is the people versus Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party leadership. At issue is a bill, S8016, submitted in the state’s senate by freshman state Senator Eric Oemig, which would call on the U.S. Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors against the Constitution and the people of the United States and of the state of Washington.
The measure, which would take the form of a joint resolution by the two houses of the Washington state legislature, accords with the instructions laid out by Founder Thomas Jefferson, who, in his Manual of the Rules of the House of Representatives laid out state joint resolutions as an alternative route for initiating presidential impeachment proceedings in the House, in addition to the more usual route of a member submitting a bill of impeachment.
Jefferson’s prescient thinking was that if Congress, by reason of political cowardice or inattention, ever proved unwilling or unable to initiate impeachment when it was called for, state legislators, far from Capitol Hill and closer to the people, could do it for them.
But two unprincipled and devious Democratic members of Washington’s congressional delegation, Sen. Pat Murray and Rep. Jay Inslee, are undermining Jefferson’s carefully designed fail-safe system by pressuring Democratic state legislators to kill Sen. Oemig’s bill.
The Seattle Times reports in a March 2 article that Murray and Inslee are telling Democrats in the state senate to kill the impeachment bill on the grounds that it would lead to “divisiveness” in Washington, and that it would impede the “Democratic agenda” in Congress.
Forget grave spinning! This wholly inappropriate interference in state affairs by the state's two leading national political figures must have Jefferson soiling his breeches!
Clearly, Murray and Inslee have decided to abandon their constituents in the state of Washington, a majority of whom want this criminal president impeached, and are instead doing the bidding of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who have completely lost touch with the nation’s voters and with their own sense of principle. But this battle is not over.
The grassroots movement in Washington, which has led to Sen. Oemig’s bill getting as far as a hearing in the Senate’s Government Operations and Elections Committee, is growing rapidly. The Citizens Committee for Impeachment in Olympia, with almost no money and no press coverage, brought 900 people to a rally a week before the committee hearing, and hundreds more to the capitol building on the day of the hearing.
A massive phone and letter-writing campaign to committee members and state senators is now underway to insure that the bill goes to a vote in the full Senate. If Democratic state legislators know what is good for them, they will send Murray and Inslee packing back to Washington and will vote to defend the Constitution and their constituents by approving Sen. Oemig’s bill in both houses and sending his resolution to the House, forcing Pelosi to put impeachment back on the House agenda where it belongs.
After all, what is this supposed concern about “divisiveness”? The nation is mired in a criminal war that has killed 3,200 American troops and injured another 52,000, many of them from Washington state. The president has trashed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and is bankrupting the nation, wasting money that could be helping Washington residents and other Americans. Washington, D.C. today is not too divisive; it is not divisive enough!
As for that Democratic agenda, just how do Murray and Inslee expect anything passed by the current Congress to make its way into law if the president is free to continue, in direct violation of Article I and II of the Constitution, to invalidate the laws passed by the Congress through his use of what he calls “signing statements”?
Wrap...
New US Atty, Rove's boy, a criminal...
From Greg Palast :
Bush's New US Attorney a Criminal?
BBC Television had exposed 2004 voter attack schemeby appointee Griffin, a Rove aide.Black soldiers and the homeless targeted.
by Greg Palast
March 7, 2007.
There's only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That's replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.
There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush's firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn't bend to political pressure.
But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove's assistant, the President's pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.
Key voters on Griffin's hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In October 2004, our investigations team at BBC Newsnight received a series of astonishing emails from Mr. Griffin, then Research Director for the Republican National Committee. He didn't mean to send them to us. They were highly confidential memos meant only for RNC honchos.
However, Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails -- potential evidence of a crime -- to email addresses ending with the domain name "@GeorgeWBush.com" he sent them to "@GeorgeWBush.ORG." A website run by prankster John Wooden who owns "GeorgeWBush.org." When Wooden got the treasure trove of Rove-ian ravings, he sent them to us.
And we dug in, decoding, and mapping the voters on what Griffin called, "Caging" lists, spreadsheets with 70,000 names of voters marked for challenge. Overwhelmingly, these were Black and Hispanic voters from Democratic precincts.
The Griffin scheme was sickly brilliant. We learned that the RNC sent first-class letters to new voters in minority precincts marked, "Do not forward." Several sheets contained nothing but soldiers, other sheets, homeless shelters. Targets included the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and that city's State Street Rescue Mission. Another target, Edward Waters College, a school for African-Americans.
If these voters were not currently at their home voting address, they were tagged as "suspect" and their registration wiped out or their ballot challenged and not counted. Of course, these 'cages' captured thousands of students, the homeless and those in the military though they are legitimate voters.We telephoned those on the hit list, including one Randall Prausa. His wife admitted he wasn't living at his voting address: Randall was a soldier shipped overseas.
Randall and other soldiers like him who sent in absentee ballots, when challenged, would lose their vote. And they wouldn't even know it.
And by the way, it's not illegal for soldiers to vote from overseas -- even if they're Black.
But it is illegal to challenge voters en masse where race is an element in the targeting. So several lawyers told us, including Ralph Neas, famed civil rights attorney with People for the American Way.
Griffin himself ducked our cameras, but his RNC team tried to sell us the notion that the caging sheets were, in fact, not illegal voter hit lists, but a roster of donors to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. Republican donors at homeless shelters?
Over the past weeks, Griffin has said he would step down if he had to face Congressional confirmation. However, the President appointed Griffin to the law enforcement post using an odd little provision of the USA Patriot Act that could allow Griffin to skip Congressional questioning altogether.
Therefore, I have a suggestion for Judiciary members. Voting law expert Neas will be testifying today before Conyers' Committee on the topic of illegal voter "disenfranchisement" -- the fancy word for stealing elections by denying voters' civil rights.
Maybe Conyers should hold a line-up of suspected vote thieves and let Neas identify the perpetrators. That should be easy in the case of the Caging List Criminal. He'd only have to look for the guy wearing a new shiny lawman's badge.
******
Read the full story, "Caging Lists: Great White Republicans Take Voters Captive" in Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse: Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales from a White House Gone Wild.
The new edition, with a new chapter on Theft of the Election, will be released April 24th (by Penguin/Plume in paperback).Catch our original BBC Television story here - on Palast's brand new YouTube channel
Wrap...
Bush's New US Attorney a Criminal?
BBC Television had exposed 2004 voter attack schemeby appointee Griffin, a Rove aide.Black soldiers and the homeless targeted.
by Greg Palast
March 7, 2007.
There's only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That's replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.
There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush's firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn't bend to political pressure.
But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove's assistant, the President's pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.
Key voters on Griffin's hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In October 2004, our investigations team at BBC Newsnight received a series of astonishing emails from Mr. Griffin, then Research Director for the Republican National Committee. He didn't mean to send them to us. They were highly confidential memos meant only for RNC honchos.
However, Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails -- potential evidence of a crime -- to email addresses ending with the domain name "@GeorgeWBush.com" he sent them to "@GeorgeWBush.ORG." A website run by prankster John Wooden who owns "GeorgeWBush.org." When Wooden got the treasure trove of Rove-ian ravings, he sent them to us.
And we dug in, decoding, and mapping the voters on what Griffin called, "Caging" lists, spreadsheets with 70,000 names of voters marked for challenge. Overwhelmingly, these were Black and Hispanic voters from Democratic precincts.
The Griffin scheme was sickly brilliant. We learned that the RNC sent first-class letters to new voters in minority precincts marked, "Do not forward." Several sheets contained nothing but soldiers, other sheets, homeless shelters. Targets included the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and that city's State Street Rescue Mission. Another target, Edward Waters College, a school for African-Americans.
If these voters were not currently at their home voting address, they were tagged as "suspect" and their registration wiped out or their ballot challenged and not counted. Of course, these 'cages' captured thousands of students, the homeless and those in the military though they are legitimate voters.We telephoned those on the hit list, including one Randall Prausa. His wife admitted he wasn't living at his voting address: Randall was a soldier shipped overseas.
Randall and other soldiers like him who sent in absentee ballots, when challenged, would lose their vote. And they wouldn't even know it.
And by the way, it's not illegal for soldiers to vote from overseas -- even if they're Black.
But it is illegal to challenge voters en masse where race is an element in the targeting. So several lawyers told us, including Ralph Neas, famed civil rights attorney with People for the American Way.
Griffin himself ducked our cameras, but his RNC team tried to sell us the notion that the caging sheets were, in fact, not illegal voter hit lists, but a roster of donors to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. Republican donors at homeless shelters?
Over the past weeks, Griffin has said he would step down if he had to face Congressional confirmation. However, the President appointed Griffin to the law enforcement post using an odd little provision of the USA Patriot Act that could allow Griffin to skip Congressional questioning altogether.
Therefore, I have a suggestion for Judiciary members. Voting law expert Neas will be testifying today before Conyers' Committee on the topic of illegal voter "disenfranchisement" -- the fancy word for stealing elections by denying voters' civil rights.
Maybe Conyers should hold a line-up of suspected vote thieves and let Neas identify the perpetrators. That should be easy in the case of the Caging List Criminal. He'd only have to look for the guy wearing a new shiny lawman's badge.
******
Read the full story, "Caging Lists: Great White Republicans Take Voters Captive" in Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse: Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales from a White House Gone Wild.
The new edition, with a new chapter on Theft of the Election, will be released April 24th (by Penguin/Plume in paperback).Catch our original BBC Television story here - on Palast's brand new YouTube channel
Wrap...
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Condi's new boy...UGH!
From Information Clearing House:
Meet Eliot Cohen, Condi's New Deputy: "As Extremist a Neocon and Warmonger as It Gets"
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp03062007.html
Wrap...
Meet Eliot Cohen, Condi's New Deputy: "As Extremist a Neocon and Warmonger as It Gets"
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp03062007.html
Wrap...
Monday, March 05, 2007
"If", hell!!! Greedy BushCo/Halliburton sucks....
From American Progress:
THE PRIVATIZATION:
On Friday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an internal memo from Sept. 2006 describing how the Army's decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed was causing an exodus of "highly skilled and experienced personnel," placing the entire hospital and its patient care services "at risk of mission failure."
In Jan. 2006, against the wishes of numerous progressive members of Congress, Walter Reed finalized a five-year, $120-million "cost-plus" contract to IAP Worldwide Services for hospital support services, including facilities management.
IAP is led by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official who testified in 2004 "in defense of Halliburton's exorbitant charges for fuel delivery and troop support in Iraq," and former Vice President Dan Quayle serves on the board.
IAP has "grown exponentially in recent years in part because of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq"; in 2005, it received a contract to deliver desperately-needed ice to victims of Hurricane Katrina, but "millions of pounds of ice were sent to storage, some as far away as Maine."
As Waxman writes, "It would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers."
Wrap...
THE PRIVATIZATION:
On Friday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an internal memo from Sept. 2006 describing how the Army's decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed was causing an exodus of "highly skilled and experienced personnel," placing the entire hospital and its patient care services "at risk of mission failure."
In Jan. 2006, against the wishes of numerous progressive members of Congress, Walter Reed finalized a five-year, $120-million "cost-plus" contract to IAP Worldwide Services for hospital support services, including facilities management.
IAP is led by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official who testified in 2004 "in defense of Halliburton's exorbitant charges for fuel delivery and troop support in Iraq," and former Vice President Dan Quayle serves on the board.
IAP has "grown exponentially in recent years in part because of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq"; in 2005, it received a contract to deliver desperately-needed ice to victims of Hurricane Katrina, but "millions of pounds of ice were sent to storage, some as far away as Maine."
As Waxman writes, "It would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers."
Wrap...
Privatize, privatize, privatize...pay for rich tax cuts...
From American Progress:
MILITARYThe Walter Reed Pattern
In today's Washington Post, we learn the story of Army Spec. Roberto Reyes Jr., who "lies nearly immobile and unable to talk" in his hospital bed. "
Once a strapping member of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, Reyes got too close to an improvised explosive device in Iraq." His mother and his aunt are "constant bedside companions; Reyes, 25, likes for them to get two inches from his face, so he can pull on their noses with the few fingers he can still control."
But his family complains about his medical care. "They fight over who's going to have to give him a bath -- in front of him!" his aunt said. "Reyes suffered third-degree burns on his leg when a nurse left him in a shower unattended. He was unable to move himself away from the scalding water."
Perhaps surprisingly, these horror stories are not from Walter Reed hospital, but the VA Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. They are evidence not of a few tragic isolated problems, but of systemic neglect that has nearly crippled the U.S. veterans' health system.
"I've...written the same story from Fort Stewart, Georgia. I've written the same story at Fort Knox," says journalist Mark Benjamin, who first reported on the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed two years ago. Likewise, the problems that led to this crisis are also systemic.
"For all its cries of 'support the troops,'" columnist Paul Krugman writes today, "the Bush administration has treated veterans’ medical care the same way it treats everything else: nickel-and-diming the needy, protecting the incompetent and privatizing everything it can."
Wrap...
MILITARYThe Walter Reed Pattern
In today's Washington Post, we learn the story of Army Spec. Roberto Reyes Jr., who "lies nearly immobile and unable to talk" in his hospital bed. "
Once a strapping member of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, Reyes got too close to an improvised explosive device in Iraq." His mother and his aunt are "constant bedside companions; Reyes, 25, likes for them to get two inches from his face, so he can pull on their noses with the few fingers he can still control."
But his family complains about his medical care. "They fight over who's going to have to give him a bath -- in front of him!" his aunt said. "Reyes suffered third-degree burns on his leg when a nurse left him in a shower unattended. He was unable to move himself away from the scalding water."
Perhaps surprisingly, these horror stories are not from Walter Reed hospital, but the VA Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. They are evidence not of a few tragic isolated problems, but of systemic neglect that has nearly crippled the U.S. veterans' health system.
"I've...written the same story from Fort Stewart, Georgia. I've written the same story at Fort Knox," says journalist Mark Benjamin, who first reported on the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed two years ago. Likewise, the problems that led to this crisis are also systemic.
"For all its cries of 'support the troops,'" columnist Paul Krugman writes today, "the Bush administration has treated veterans’ medical care the same way it treats everything else: nickel-and-diming the needy, protecting the incompetent and privatizing everything it can."
Wrap...
Sunday, March 04, 2007
K Street & Congressional Earmarks...& $$$$$$$...
From the Washington Post:
Citizen K Street
-->RSS Feed
About This Series Chapters: Select one...
Introduction Chapter 1
About the Citizen K Street Project
Thirty-eight years ago, a young lawyer named Gerald S. J. Cassidy left his job in Florida on a legal aid project for migrant workers to come to Washington. He went to work on the staff of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, chaired by Sen. George McGovern (D.-S.D.). Cassidy worked for McGovern on food stamps, school lunch programs and the like for six years, then left with a colleague to establish a consulting business. They thought they could use their knowledge of Congress and the federal bureaucracy to help businesses and institutions navigate the nation's capital. Instead, they ended up helping to change Washington itself.
They developed one big idea for a business that proved amazingly successful: the earmarked appropriation for individual institutions. Tufts University was their first client to win an earmark, $27 million to build a human nutrition research center. This success was the first recorded example of lobbyists making money by persuading Congress to send money to a private institution that had asked for the money without any government agency proposing the project. Within a few years this upstart lobbying firm had dozens of clients and was making millions of dollars.
The original partnership broke up after ten years, but the business boomed. Cassidy & Associates became the biggest lobbying firm in town. Its success contributed to an explosion of lobbying as imitators tried to copy the Cassidy method. Lobbyists became important sources of cash for the politicians they lobbied, and as campaigns became ever more expensive, lobbyists' contributions became ever more important. Over time, the rise of lobbying helped create a new culture of wealth in the nation's capital. And Gerald Cassidy himself amassed a fortune of more than $100 million.
In the coming weeks, Robert G. Kaiser, associate editor of The Washington Post, will tell the story of Gerry Cassidy's career and the evolution of his firm in a unique fashion, combining the resources of both The Post and washingtonpost.com.
[Note: continued at www.washingtonpost.com]
Wrap...
Citizen K Street
-->RSS Feed
About This Series Chapters: Select one...
Introduction Chapter 1
About the Citizen K Street Project
Thirty-eight years ago, a young lawyer named Gerald S. J. Cassidy left his job in Florida on a legal aid project for migrant workers to come to Washington. He went to work on the staff of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, chaired by Sen. George McGovern (D.-S.D.). Cassidy worked for McGovern on food stamps, school lunch programs and the like for six years, then left with a colleague to establish a consulting business. They thought they could use their knowledge of Congress and the federal bureaucracy to help businesses and institutions navigate the nation's capital. Instead, they ended up helping to change Washington itself.
They developed one big idea for a business that proved amazingly successful: the earmarked appropriation for individual institutions. Tufts University was their first client to win an earmark, $27 million to build a human nutrition research center. This success was the first recorded example of lobbyists making money by persuading Congress to send money to a private institution that had asked for the money without any government agency proposing the project. Within a few years this upstart lobbying firm had dozens of clients and was making millions of dollars.
The original partnership broke up after ten years, but the business boomed. Cassidy & Associates became the biggest lobbying firm in town. Its success contributed to an explosion of lobbying as imitators tried to copy the Cassidy method. Lobbyists became important sources of cash for the politicians they lobbied, and as campaigns became ever more expensive, lobbyists' contributions became ever more important. Over time, the rise of lobbying helped create a new culture of wealth in the nation's capital. And Gerald Cassidy himself amassed a fortune of more than $100 million.
In the coming weeks, Robert G. Kaiser, associate editor of The Washington Post, will tell the story of Gerry Cassidy's career and the evolution of his firm in a unique fashion, combining the resources of both The Post and washingtonpost.com.
[Note: continued at www.washingtonpost.com]
Wrap...
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Cheney's Halliburton guy runs Walter Reed...
From Army Times:
Committee subpoenas former Walter Reed chief
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 3, 2007 9:31:09 EST
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has subpoenaed Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who was fired as head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, after Army officials refused to allow him to testify before the committee Monday.
Read complete coverage of the Walter Reed controversy.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and subcommittee Chairman John Tierney asked Weightman to testify about an internal memo that showed privatization of services at Walter Reed could put “patient care services at risk of mission failure.”
But Army officials refused to allow Weightman to appear before the committee after he was relieved of command.
“The Army was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the decision to prevent General Weightman from testifying,” committee members said in a statement today.
The committee wants to learn more about a letter written in September by Garrison Commander Peter Garibaldi to Weightman.
The memorandum “describes how the Army’s decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of ‘highly skilled and experienced personnel,’” the committee’s letter states. “According to multiple sources, the decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support personnel at Walter Reed.”
The letter said Walter Reed also awarded a five-year, $120-million contract to IAP Worldwide Services, which is run by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official.
They also found that more than 300 federal employees providing facilities management services at Walter Reed had drooped to fewer than 60 by Feb. 3, 2007, the day before IAP took over facilities management. IAP replaced the remaining 60 employees with only 50 private workers.
“The conditions that have been described at Walter Reed are disgraceful,” the letter states.
“Part of our mission on the Oversight Committee is to investigate what led to the breakdown in services. It would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers.”
The letter said the Defense Department “systemically” tried to replace federal workers at Walter Reed with private companies for facilities management, patient care and guard duty – a process that began in 2000.
“But the push to privatize support services there accelerated under President Bush’s ‘competitive sourcing’ initiative, which was launched in 2002,” the letter states.
During the year between awarding the contract to IAP and when the company started, “skilled government workers apparently began leaving Walter Reed in droves,” the letter states. “The memorandum also indicates that officials at the highest levels of Walter Reed and the U.S. Army Medical Command were informed about the dangers of privatization, but appeared to do little to prevent them.”
The memo signed by Garibaldi requests more federal employees because the hospital mission had grown “significantly” during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It states that medical command did not concur with their request for more people.
“Without favorable consideration of these requests,” Garibaldi wrote, “[Walter Reed Army Medical Center] Base Operations and patient care services are at risk of mission failure.”
Related reading
Original letter asking Weightman to testify.
Wrap...
Committee subpoenas former Walter Reed chief
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 3, 2007 9:31:09 EST
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has subpoenaed Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who was fired as head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, after Army officials refused to allow him to testify before the committee Monday.
Read complete coverage of the Walter Reed controversy.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and subcommittee Chairman John Tierney asked Weightman to testify about an internal memo that showed privatization of services at Walter Reed could put “patient care services at risk of mission failure.”
But Army officials refused to allow Weightman to appear before the committee after he was relieved of command.
“The Army was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the decision to prevent General Weightman from testifying,” committee members said in a statement today.
The committee wants to learn more about a letter written in September by Garrison Commander Peter Garibaldi to Weightman.
The memorandum “describes how the Army’s decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of ‘highly skilled and experienced personnel,’” the committee’s letter states. “According to multiple sources, the decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support personnel at Walter Reed.”
The letter said Walter Reed also awarded a five-year, $120-million contract to IAP Worldwide Services, which is run by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official.
They also found that more than 300 federal employees providing facilities management services at Walter Reed had drooped to fewer than 60 by Feb. 3, 2007, the day before IAP took over facilities management. IAP replaced the remaining 60 employees with only 50 private workers.
“The conditions that have been described at Walter Reed are disgraceful,” the letter states.
“Part of our mission on the Oversight Committee is to investigate what led to the breakdown in services. It would be reprehensible if the deplorable conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless of the costs to taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers.”
The letter said the Defense Department “systemically” tried to replace federal workers at Walter Reed with private companies for facilities management, patient care and guard duty – a process that began in 2000.
“But the push to privatize support services there accelerated under President Bush’s ‘competitive sourcing’ initiative, which was launched in 2002,” the letter states.
During the year between awarding the contract to IAP and when the company started, “skilled government workers apparently began leaving Walter Reed in droves,” the letter states. “The memorandum also indicates that officials at the highest levels of Walter Reed and the U.S. Army Medical Command were informed about the dangers of privatization, but appeared to do little to prevent them.”
The memo signed by Garibaldi requests more federal employees because the hospital mission had grown “significantly” during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It states that medical command did not concur with their request for more people.
“Without favorable consideration of these requests,” Garibaldi wrote, “[Walter Reed Army Medical Center] Base Operations and patient care services are at risk of mission failure.”
Related reading
Original letter asking Weightman to testify.
Wrap...
US Attys' fired by BushCo...
From truthout.org:
FOCUS
White House OK'd Mass Firings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030307Z.shtml
The White House approved the firings of seven US attorneys late last year after senior Justice Department officials identified the prosecutors they believed were not doing enough to carry out President Bush's policies on immigration, firearms and other issues, White House and Justice Department officials said yesterday.
Wrap...
FOCUS
White House OK'd Mass Firings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030307Z.shtml
The White House approved the firings of seven US attorneys late last year after senior Justice Department officials identified the prosecutors they believed were not doing enough to carry out President Bush's policies on immigration, firearms and other issues, White House and Justice Department officials said yesterday.
Wrap...
Friday, March 02, 2007
Pentagon fired the wrong General...
From American Progress:
MILITARY -- KILEY'S APPOINTMENT TO HEAD WALTER REED 'DEMORALIZING':
Yesterday, the Army fired Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, the commander of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, who had been on the job just six months. The Army said "it had lost trust and confidence in his leadership in the wake of a scandal over outpatient treatment."
In Weightman's place, the Army temporarily reappointed Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, despite Kiley's history of ignoring the veterans' problems at the hospital. As the former commander of Walter Reed, Kiley knew about the outpatient neglect for several years. Beverly Young, wife of Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), said she complained to Kiley about a soldier who was sleeping in his own urine, but Kiley ignored her and "blamed everyone else."
Even now, "Kiley believes the problems at Walter Reed's famous building 18 'weren't serious,' and he has attacked the media's coverage of the issue as 'one-sided.'" The Washington Post reports that while Kiley was ignoring Walter Reed's outpatients, he misled Congress by painting rosy pictures of veterans' care at the hospital. In 2005, Kiley told a congressional hearing that Building 18 was a "good-news story" and said the Army officials made care at the medical facilities "a top priority."
Kiley even sat in on a congressional hearing in 2005 as one injured veteran called Walter Reed a "dysfunctional system" in which "soldiers go months without pay, nowhere to live, and their medical appointments canceled." Again, Kiley ignored the issue. Kiley's appointment is bound to be unpopular among both veterans and employees of Walter Reed. A defense official today said the appointment of Kiley will likely be "demoralizing to the staff at the medical center."
Wrap...
MILITARY -- KILEY'S APPOINTMENT TO HEAD WALTER REED 'DEMORALIZING':
Yesterday, the Army fired Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, the commander of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, who had been on the job just six months. The Army said "it had lost trust and confidence in his leadership in the wake of a scandal over outpatient treatment."
In Weightman's place, the Army temporarily reappointed Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, despite Kiley's history of ignoring the veterans' problems at the hospital. As the former commander of Walter Reed, Kiley knew about the outpatient neglect for several years. Beverly Young, wife of Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), said she complained to Kiley about a soldier who was sleeping in his own urine, but Kiley ignored her and "blamed everyone else."
Even now, "Kiley believes the problems at Walter Reed's famous building 18 'weren't serious,' and he has attacked the media's coverage of the issue as 'one-sided.'" The Washington Post reports that while Kiley was ignoring Walter Reed's outpatients, he misled Congress by painting rosy pictures of veterans' care at the hospital. In 2005, Kiley told a congressional hearing that Building 18 was a "good-news story" and said the Army officials made care at the medical facilities "a top priority."
Kiley even sat in on a congressional hearing in 2005 as one injured veteran called Walter Reed a "dysfunctional system" in which "soldiers go months without pay, nowhere to live, and their medical appointments canceled." Again, Kiley ignored the issue. Kiley's appointment is bound to be unpopular among both veterans and employees of Walter Reed. A defense official today said the appointment of Kiley will likely be "demoralizing to the staff at the medical center."
Wrap...
Kucinich...the quiet and sensible guy...
From In These Times via truthout.org:
Go to Original
Kucinich Comes Back for '08
By Daniel Sturm
In These Times
Wednesday 28 February 2007
To his supporters, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) represents the sane voice of the Democratic Party - a man who reads books, gives intelligent speeches and acts on principle. To his detractors, Kucinich is a small man on an ego trip, too radical to be elected.
Kucinich was the only Democratic candidate in the 2004 presidential primaries to vote against the war in Iraq. His 90-day plan to end the occupation was dismissed by the party's centrist leaders and he came in fourth in the primaries - behind Kerry, Edwards and Dean.
Three years later, the Iraq war has cost the lives of more than 3,000 American servicemen and untold thousands of Iraqis. And once again Kucinich, relentless in his call for withdrawing troops, is vying for the nation's top job. "My country calls me to action," he told a cheering crowd after announcing his candidacy on December 12 in Cleveland.
Kucinich first gained prominence in 1977 when, at age 31, he was elected mayor of Cleveland, becoming the youngest mayor ever elected in a major American city. During his campaign, Kucinich promised to save the struggling city-owned Municipal Light Co. When the company's private competitor tried to force the city to sell, Mayor Kucinich refused. In response, the banks cut off credit and the City of Cleveland went into default. In 1979, Kucinich lost his bid for re-election. Years later, the Cleveland City Council would honor him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system" - and saving ratepayers more than $100 million.
During his 15-year hiatus from politics, he worked as a TV commentator, media consultant, college professor and public utility consultant. Kucinich re-launched his political career in 1993, with the campaign symbol of a light bulb and the slogan, "Because he was right!" He won a seat in the Ohio state Senate in 1994 and was elected to Congress two years later.
Daniel Sturm recently spoke with Kucinich about his decision to run again for president and his position on the war.
With his proposal to escalate the war through a troop "surge," President George W. Bush plans to dispatch 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. What effect would this have?
More war, more door-to-door fighting, more civilian casualties, an expansion of the conflict, more deaths of troops, more costs to the people of the United States, more ruination for Iraq and more instability in the region and the world. And it sets the stage for a conflict against Iran.
Daniel Ellsberg, of "Pentagon Papers" fame, told Democracy Now that he believes Bush plans to attack Iran, probably without informing Congress. Ellsberg says a similar escalation happened during the Vietnam War, when the battlefield was extended into Laos and Cambodia. Could this be possible?
The analogy is correct. I think this president is looking to expand the war. His comments about Iran and Syria were not conciliatory. He's rattling the saber at a time when saber-rattling hurts our troops. It's the kind of tough talk that dragged us into this war, the same braggadocio that doesn't pass for statecraft, but shows an administration that's out of control. Here's a president who's putting his foot on the accelerator as the car heads toward the cliff.
The "Kucinich Plan" proposes replacing U.S. troops with an international peacekeeping force. But after the United States ignored the world's opposition to its invasion of Iraq, is it practical to expect European and other nations to support America now?
I'm talking about a totally different process. I'm talking about something that legitimates the international community, as opposed to the Bush Administration's plan that rejects the primacy of international cooperation. It is imperative that the United States take a different course - a course out of Iraq. How do you get the international community involved?
It begins with the United States indicating its intention to take a new direction. That direction must articulate a desire to end the occupation; withdraw the troops; close the bases; assist in the creation of a new process for reconciliation, reconstruction and reparation in Iraq; and stop the privatization of Iraqi oil. I think that if the United States would take that position, you'd find receptivity in the international community.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes sending additional troops to Iraq, but she has also said that cutting off funding for troops already there isn't an option. How does your position differ from hers?
I have a great deal of respect for Nancy Pelosi. I think we have to give Democrats a few weeks to absorb the full impact of the president's intentions, and to realize that it is absolutely critical to stop this administration from continuing the war. The only way to do that is for Congress to assume its power under the constitution: the power of the purse.
I am going to be presenting members of Congress and the American people with this proposition: If the cost of bringing the troops and the equipment home is in the area of $5 to $7 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and if we have money in the pipeline right now, why not bring the troops home with that money?
If Congress votes to appropriate another $160 billion for Iraq in the spring, we'll essentially have given George W. Bush the money he needs to carry the war through the end of his term. That would bring the total war cost, in 2007, to $230 billion. George Bush has been unequivocal about Iraq, and anyone who's missed this hasn't been paying attention. He has no intention of getting out of Iraq. He intends to keep our troops there until the end of his term. And that's a death-sentence for a lot of Americans stationed over there.
The anti-war movement hasn't evolved much since the start of the war. Why not?
A couple of things are going on. The Bush administration has been very successful in sending out conflicting messages. If you pay attention to what the administration says, it can be very tough to organize. But if you pay attention to what they do, it's pretty easy to organize. Because what they do is to continue to prosecute war. I think that the kind of surge we saw in public involvement in the late winter and early spring of 2003 will happen again, as the surge in troops and this escalation occurs.
The Toledo Blade has called you a "diminutive Cleveland congressman" with a "giant-sized ego." How do you respond?
I'm not going to dignify this with a comment. There's a war going on. People are losing their lives. And what is the Toledo Blade doing? I would ask the Toledo Blade to join me in challenging this unjust war, and to tell the people of Toledo that the war was based on lies. I would ask them to call for the troops to come home. Everything I said four years ago has become mainstream. I'm not speaking from the margins.
Besides the war, what other issues will be central to your campaign?
My campaign isn't just about the war. I'm challenging the very idea of war as an instrument of policy. I'm saying that policies of preemption, first-strike and unilateralism are bankrupt.
It begins with an understanding that war is destructive, not only to human life, and the hopes of people, but also to budgets. My experience has told me that the United States has to return to the American city. I'm someone whose career has been heavily involved in local government. I know exactly the kind of concerns that communities have. Cities need revenue sharing again. Cities need job programs and summer job programs for young people.
We need to come up with new energy policies to enable the creation of alternative energy. More money for mass transit. It's almost like domestic policy in America is like the dark side of the moon! Nobody's even seen it, at least not since this administration took office.
What tactical mistakes did you make in 2004?
I think that in 2004 the American people weren't ready for the message I had-not just about Iraq, but about the imperative of taking a new approach in the world, and also focusing back on taking care of things here at home.
If we look at our capacity for transformation as a nation, we move from an American revolution to an American evolution. And the evolutionary potential of this country is not being tapped. We're devolving. We're going back to a time to when we were struggling for survival, when we were alone in the world. We don't need to do that anymore! We can lead the world by example, and in cooperation.
My approach is to show people the potential of America to become a place where there are opportunities for wealth for everyone, opportunities for peace and security for everyone, and where we don't have to fear and to worry whether people will lose their homes because they're trying to get healthcare for a loved one, or they don't have the resources they need to achieve their dreams. Lately our idea of governance has been all about war; we have to change that. Otherwise, we are going to lose our country. We are going to lose our democracy.
We may be at the most pivotal moment of American history, because we're either going to change course, and reintegrate with the world community, or we're going to be locked into a broader conflict that will become intractable. I'm determined and hopeful that we'll take the upland course.
---------
Daniel Sturm is a German journalist who covers underreported social and political topics in the United States and Europe. Some of his work can be seen online. He currently lives in Athens, Ohio.
Wrap...
Go to Original
Kucinich Comes Back for '08
By Daniel Sturm
In These Times
Wednesday 28 February 2007
To his supporters, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) represents the sane voice of the Democratic Party - a man who reads books, gives intelligent speeches and acts on principle. To his detractors, Kucinich is a small man on an ego trip, too radical to be elected.
Kucinich was the only Democratic candidate in the 2004 presidential primaries to vote against the war in Iraq. His 90-day plan to end the occupation was dismissed by the party's centrist leaders and he came in fourth in the primaries - behind Kerry, Edwards and Dean.
Three years later, the Iraq war has cost the lives of more than 3,000 American servicemen and untold thousands of Iraqis. And once again Kucinich, relentless in his call for withdrawing troops, is vying for the nation's top job. "My country calls me to action," he told a cheering crowd after announcing his candidacy on December 12 in Cleveland.
Kucinich first gained prominence in 1977 when, at age 31, he was elected mayor of Cleveland, becoming the youngest mayor ever elected in a major American city. During his campaign, Kucinich promised to save the struggling city-owned Municipal Light Co. When the company's private competitor tried to force the city to sell, Mayor Kucinich refused. In response, the banks cut off credit and the City of Cleveland went into default. In 1979, Kucinich lost his bid for re-election. Years later, the Cleveland City Council would honor him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system" - and saving ratepayers more than $100 million.
During his 15-year hiatus from politics, he worked as a TV commentator, media consultant, college professor and public utility consultant. Kucinich re-launched his political career in 1993, with the campaign symbol of a light bulb and the slogan, "Because he was right!" He won a seat in the Ohio state Senate in 1994 and was elected to Congress two years later.
Daniel Sturm recently spoke with Kucinich about his decision to run again for president and his position on the war.
With his proposal to escalate the war through a troop "surge," President George W. Bush plans to dispatch 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. What effect would this have?
More war, more door-to-door fighting, more civilian casualties, an expansion of the conflict, more deaths of troops, more costs to the people of the United States, more ruination for Iraq and more instability in the region and the world. And it sets the stage for a conflict against Iran.
Daniel Ellsberg, of "Pentagon Papers" fame, told Democracy Now that he believes Bush plans to attack Iran, probably without informing Congress. Ellsberg says a similar escalation happened during the Vietnam War, when the battlefield was extended into Laos and Cambodia. Could this be possible?
The analogy is correct. I think this president is looking to expand the war. His comments about Iran and Syria were not conciliatory. He's rattling the saber at a time when saber-rattling hurts our troops. It's the kind of tough talk that dragged us into this war, the same braggadocio that doesn't pass for statecraft, but shows an administration that's out of control. Here's a president who's putting his foot on the accelerator as the car heads toward the cliff.
The "Kucinich Plan" proposes replacing U.S. troops with an international peacekeeping force. But after the United States ignored the world's opposition to its invasion of Iraq, is it practical to expect European and other nations to support America now?
I'm talking about a totally different process. I'm talking about something that legitimates the international community, as opposed to the Bush Administration's plan that rejects the primacy of international cooperation. It is imperative that the United States take a different course - a course out of Iraq. How do you get the international community involved?
It begins with the United States indicating its intention to take a new direction. That direction must articulate a desire to end the occupation; withdraw the troops; close the bases; assist in the creation of a new process for reconciliation, reconstruction and reparation in Iraq; and stop the privatization of Iraqi oil. I think that if the United States would take that position, you'd find receptivity in the international community.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes sending additional troops to Iraq, but she has also said that cutting off funding for troops already there isn't an option. How does your position differ from hers?
I have a great deal of respect for Nancy Pelosi. I think we have to give Democrats a few weeks to absorb the full impact of the president's intentions, and to realize that it is absolutely critical to stop this administration from continuing the war. The only way to do that is for Congress to assume its power under the constitution: the power of the purse.
I am going to be presenting members of Congress and the American people with this proposition: If the cost of bringing the troops and the equipment home is in the area of $5 to $7 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and if we have money in the pipeline right now, why not bring the troops home with that money?
If Congress votes to appropriate another $160 billion for Iraq in the spring, we'll essentially have given George W. Bush the money he needs to carry the war through the end of his term. That would bring the total war cost, in 2007, to $230 billion. George Bush has been unequivocal about Iraq, and anyone who's missed this hasn't been paying attention. He has no intention of getting out of Iraq. He intends to keep our troops there until the end of his term. And that's a death-sentence for a lot of Americans stationed over there.
The anti-war movement hasn't evolved much since the start of the war. Why not?
A couple of things are going on. The Bush administration has been very successful in sending out conflicting messages. If you pay attention to what the administration says, it can be very tough to organize. But if you pay attention to what they do, it's pretty easy to organize. Because what they do is to continue to prosecute war. I think that the kind of surge we saw in public involvement in the late winter and early spring of 2003 will happen again, as the surge in troops and this escalation occurs.
The Toledo Blade has called you a "diminutive Cleveland congressman" with a "giant-sized ego." How do you respond?
I'm not going to dignify this with a comment. There's a war going on. People are losing their lives. And what is the Toledo Blade doing? I would ask the Toledo Blade to join me in challenging this unjust war, and to tell the people of Toledo that the war was based on lies. I would ask them to call for the troops to come home. Everything I said four years ago has become mainstream. I'm not speaking from the margins.
Besides the war, what other issues will be central to your campaign?
My campaign isn't just about the war. I'm challenging the very idea of war as an instrument of policy. I'm saying that policies of preemption, first-strike and unilateralism are bankrupt.
It begins with an understanding that war is destructive, not only to human life, and the hopes of people, but also to budgets. My experience has told me that the United States has to return to the American city. I'm someone whose career has been heavily involved in local government. I know exactly the kind of concerns that communities have. Cities need revenue sharing again. Cities need job programs and summer job programs for young people.
We need to come up with new energy policies to enable the creation of alternative energy. More money for mass transit. It's almost like domestic policy in America is like the dark side of the moon! Nobody's even seen it, at least not since this administration took office.
What tactical mistakes did you make in 2004?
I think that in 2004 the American people weren't ready for the message I had-not just about Iraq, but about the imperative of taking a new approach in the world, and also focusing back on taking care of things here at home.
If we look at our capacity for transformation as a nation, we move from an American revolution to an American evolution. And the evolutionary potential of this country is not being tapped. We're devolving. We're going back to a time to when we were struggling for survival, when we were alone in the world. We don't need to do that anymore! We can lead the world by example, and in cooperation.
My approach is to show people the potential of America to become a place where there are opportunities for wealth for everyone, opportunities for peace and security for everyone, and where we don't have to fear and to worry whether people will lose their homes because they're trying to get healthcare for a loved one, or they don't have the resources they need to achieve their dreams. Lately our idea of governance has been all about war; we have to change that. Otherwise, we are going to lose our country. We are going to lose our democracy.
We may be at the most pivotal moment of American history, because we're either going to change course, and reintegrate with the world community, or we're going to be locked into a broader conflict that will become intractable. I'm determined and hopeful that we'll take the upland course.
---------
Daniel Sturm is a German journalist who covers underreported social and political topics in the United States and Europe. Some of his work can be seen online. He currently lives in Athens, Ohio.
Wrap...
Coming: One Film and a bunch of Good Books...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Author of NYT bestseller Jawbreaker Gary Berntsen and Ralph Pezzullo's THE WALK-IN, about what happens when a defector "walks into" an embassy with information suggesting millions are in peril - and a CIA super-interrogator must urgently determine whether the defector is telling the truth, again to Rick Horgan at Crown, by Heather Mitchell at Gelfman Schneider (world).Rights: LKaplan@randomhouse.com
Joanne Proulx's ANTHEM OF A RELUCTANT PROPHET, in which a seventeen-year-old fortells the death of his best-friend with freakish accuracy, everyone in his hometown finds out, and life gets complicated fast, to Katie Herman at Soho Press, in a nice deal, by Samantha Haywood at Transatlantic Literary Agency (US).Foreign: sam@tla1.com
THRILLER:
Professor of Physics at Cornell University and expert on nanotechnology Paul McEuen's biotech thriller A THIN STRAND, mixing history and technological fact to create a frightening tale of imminent ecological and political catastrophe, to Susan Kamil at Dial Press, in a two-book deal, by Jane Gelfman at Gelfman Schneider (US).UK: Peter RobinsonTranslation: Betsy Robbins at Curtis Brown
GENERAL/OTHER:
Marguerite Duras' unpublished World War II notebooks, including original material for her major works, such as The Lover and The War, and exclusive short stories, translated by Linda Coverdale, to Andre Schiffrin at the New Press, for publication in March 2008, by Violaine Huisman of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency (NA).Rights previously sold to Suhrkamp in Germany, Siruela and Edicions 62 in Spain, Feltrinelli in Italy, Metaichmio in Greece, Meulenhoff in Holland, Asa in Portugal, Yi Wen in China, Woongjin in Korea, Kawade Shobo Shinsha in Japan, Like in Finland and Modernista in Sweden by Vibeke Madsen at POL Editeur. madsen@pol-editeur.fr.
Journalist, playwright, screenwriter, entrepreneur (Paul Newman's partner in "Newman's Own"), and Papa Hemingway author A. E. Hotchner's THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HEMINGWAY, a compilation of never-before-published Hemingway comments, ruminations, observations, and apercus, organized around the themes of writing, war, sports, movies, hunting, exploring, women, life and death, accompanied by photos from the author's personal collection, to Daniel Halpern at Ecco, by Paul Bresnick at Paul Bresnick Agency (world).
UK:
Nicola Upson's AN EXPERT IN MURDER, set in the London theater world of the 1930s, to Walter Donohue at Faber, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2008, by Karolina Sutton at ICM. Rachel.alexander@faber.co.uk
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Columbia Journalism Review's REPORTING IRAQ: AN ORAL HISTORY BY THE JOURNALISTS WHO COVERED IT, to Kelly Burdick of Melville House, by Steve Wasserman at Kneerim & Williams (World).
CBS news producer Alan Weisman's PRINCE OF DARKNESS -- RICHARD PERLE: The Kingdom, The Power, and the End of Empire in America, an investigative biography of the influential foreign policy thinker, Washington insider, and architect of the war in Iraq, to Philip Turner in his first acquisition at Union Square Press/Sterling, for Fall 2007, by Sharlene Martin at Martin Literary Management (world).pturner@sterlingpub.comsharlene@martinliterarymanagement.com
Columbia Journalism Review's REPORTING IRAQ: AN ORAL HISTORY BY THE JOURNALISTS WHO COVERED IT, to Kelly Burdick of Melville House, by Steve Wasserman at Kneerim & Williams (World).
FILM:
Stanley Alpert's THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, a prosecutor's account of a night in 1998 when he was kidnapped, optioned to United Artists, by Joel Gotler at Intellectual Property Group, on behalf of Ronald Goldfarb of Goldfarb &
Associates.
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Author of NYT bestseller Jawbreaker Gary Berntsen and Ralph Pezzullo's THE WALK-IN, about what happens when a defector "walks into" an embassy with information suggesting millions are in peril - and a CIA super-interrogator must urgently determine whether the defector is telling the truth, again to Rick Horgan at Crown, by Heather Mitchell at Gelfman Schneider (world).Rights: LKaplan@randomhouse.com
Joanne Proulx's ANTHEM OF A RELUCTANT PROPHET, in which a seventeen-year-old fortells the death of his best-friend with freakish accuracy, everyone in his hometown finds out, and life gets complicated fast, to Katie Herman at Soho Press, in a nice deal, by Samantha Haywood at Transatlantic Literary Agency (US).Foreign: sam@tla1.com
THRILLER:
Professor of Physics at Cornell University and expert on nanotechnology Paul McEuen's biotech thriller A THIN STRAND, mixing history and technological fact to create a frightening tale of imminent ecological and political catastrophe, to Susan Kamil at Dial Press, in a two-book deal, by Jane Gelfman at Gelfman Schneider (US).UK: Peter RobinsonTranslation: Betsy Robbins at Curtis Brown
GENERAL/OTHER:
Marguerite Duras' unpublished World War II notebooks, including original material for her major works, such as The Lover and The War, and exclusive short stories, translated by Linda Coverdale, to Andre Schiffrin at the New Press, for publication in March 2008, by Violaine Huisman of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency (NA).Rights previously sold to Suhrkamp in Germany, Siruela and Edicions 62 in Spain, Feltrinelli in Italy, Metaichmio in Greece, Meulenhoff in Holland, Asa in Portugal, Yi Wen in China, Woongjin in Korea, Kawade Shobo Shinsha in Japan, Like in Finland and Modernista in Sweden by Vibeke Madsen at POL Editeur. madsen@pol-editeur.fr.
Journalist, playwright, screenwriter, entrepreneur (Paul Newman's partner in "Newman's Own"), and Papa Hemingway author A. E. Hotchner's THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HEMINGWAY, a compilation of never-before-published Hemingway comments, ruminations, observations, and apercus, organized around the themes of writing, war, sports, movies, hunting, exploring, women, life and death, accompanied by photos from the author's personal collection, to Daniel Halpern at Ecco, by Paul Bresnick at Paul Bresnick Agency (world).
UK:
Nicola Upson's AN EXPERT IN MURDER, set in the London theater world of the 1930s, to Walter Donohue at Faber, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2008, by Karolina Sutton at ICM. Rachel.alexander@faber.co.uk
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Columbia Journalism Review's REPORTING IRAQ: AN ORAL HISTORY BY THE JOURNALISTS WHO COVERED IT, to Kelly Burdick of Melville House, by Steve Wasserman at Kneerim & Williams (World).
CBS news producer Alan Weisman's PRINCE OF DARKNESS -- RICHARD PERLE: The Kingdom, The Power, and the End of Empire in America, an investigative biography of the influential foreign policy thinker, Washington insider, and architect of the war in Iraq, to Philip Turner in his first acquisition at Union Square Press/Sterling, for Fall 2007, by Sharlene Martin at Martin Literary Management (world).pturner@sterlingpub.comsharlene@martinliterarymanagement.com
Columbia Journalism Review's REPORTING IRAQ: AN ORAL HISTORY BY THE JOURNALISTS WHO COVERED IT, to Kelly Burdick of Melville House, by Steve Wasserman at Kneerim & Williams (World).
FILM:
Stanley Alpert's THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, a prosecutor's account of a night in 1998 when he was kidnapped, optioned to United Artists, by Joel Gotler at Intellectual Property Group, on behalf of Ronald Goldfarb of Goldfarb &
Associates.
Wrap...
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Writers musing about Obermann on Condi....
Herein a short exchange of emails:
Subject: Keith v. Condi
Holy crap! I don't know that I have ever heard or read a dressing down quite like that one. Is it possible that she'll never hear it? Is it possible that if she does hear it, she'll ever come out of her house again? Is it possible that she'll hear it and not care?
Leif
Olbermann really was torqued and he let it fly, didn't he,
Leif? :))) I am so pleased with that man. Would that all newscasters would live up to his standards. But no...Condi will neither hear it nor care about it. The BushCo people listen and care only from and about each other...and even then, if the slightest scent of "disloyalty" is detected, that individual will be trashed, fired, driven from their pack of criminals forever. UGH. Hugs...
I know that,but I guess I have a different basic expectation from her because of her background. It torques me to think she could turn her back on the academic responsibility in which she is steeped. It's a culture, for crissake. And a very hard one to turn from if you've learned it, and she'd not become provost at Stanford if she hadn't. Too bad. She didn't have to tie herself to that one.
Leif
Two things, Leif...Ideology wins...and she is absolutely and totally devoted to Bush. As you say, it's a shame.
Hugs...
Absolutely and totally devoted to Bush -- that's what makes Olbermann's comment right on. I think we should demand to see her degrees to make sure she didn't buy them from some guy who stopped her on the street, "Psst, lady, want a doctorate? I can do it out of my trunk." Christ! She's supposed to be smart. She can be absolutely and totally devoted to all sorts of things and people, but to choose George Bush as her focus on which to be absolutely and totally devoted reflects badly on her credentials.
Leif
One can be book smart and life stupid, Leif...and she's sure a good example. Also, keep in mind that she's been with Bush since Texas. He's her man...the only one she's ever had.
Hugs...
Yeah, the book vs. life smart/stupid thing certainly is real. But I think you may have put your finger on it. He's the only man she's ever had. Wow! What if this comes clear with time, that 3000+ US men and women, untold thousands of Iraqis, and an incalculable measure of the nation's treasure went down the drain to satisfy a psychosexual fixation? Wow!
Leif
Wrap....
Subject: Keith v. Condi
Holy crap! I don't know that I have ever heard or read a dressing down quite like that one. Is it possible that she'll never hear it? Is it possible that if she does hear it, she'll ever come out of her house again? Is it possible that she'll hear it and not care?
Leif
Olbermann really was torqued and he let it fly, didn't he,
Leif? :))) I am so pleased with that man. Would that all newscasters would live up to his standards. But no...Condi will neither hear it nor care about it. The BushCo people listen and care only from and about each other...and even then, if the slightest scent of "disloyalty" is detected, that individual will be trashed, fired, driven from their pack of criminals forever. UGH. Hugs...
I know that,but I guess I have a different basic expectation from her because of her background. It torques me to think she could turn her back on the academic responsibility in which she is steeped. It's a culture, for crissake. And a very hard one to turn from if you've learned it, and she'd not become provost at Stanford if she hadn't. Too bad. She didn't have to tie herself to that one.
Leif
Two things, Leif...Ideology wins...and she is absolutely and totally devoted to Bush. As you say, it's a shame.
Hugs...
Absolutely and totally devoted to Bush -- that's what makes Olbermann's comment right on. I think we should demand to see her degrees to make sure she didn't buy them from some guy who stopped her on the street, "Psst, lady, want a doctorate? I can do it out of my trunk." Christ! She's supposed to be smart. She can be absolutely and totally devoted to all sorts of things and people, but to choose George Bush as her focus on which to be absolutely and totally devoted reflects badly on her credentials.
Leif
One can be book smart and life stupid, Leif...and she's sure a good example. Also, keep in mind that she's been with Bush since Texas. He's her man...the only one she's ever had.
Hugs...
Yeah, the book vs. life smart/stupid thing certainly is real. But I think you may have put your finger on it. He's the only man she's ever had. Wow! What if this comes clear with time, that 3000+ US men and women, untold thousands of Iraqis, and an incalculable measure of the nation's treasure went down the drain to satisfy a psychosexual fixation? Wow!
Leif
Wrap....
General relieved of command at Walter Reed..GOOD!
From American Progress:
NOTE: See www.nytimes.com for story on General relieved of command...
Think Fast
Walter Reed officials have known of the deplorable conditions for at least three years. Joyce Rumsfeld, the wife of then-Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, was taken to Walter Reed last October "by a friend concerned about outpatient treatment." Mrs. Rumsfeld was told that her husband was being given a rosy picture of the hospital. Walter Reed officials proceeded to ban the friend who brought Mrs. Rumsfeld in.
For five years, the United States accused North Korea of pursuing a secret path to developing enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, an accusation that "resulted in the rupture of an already tense relationship." Now, the administration has quietly admitted its intelligence may have been faulty.
Amb. Tim Carney, a U.S. coordinator for Iraq's reconstruction, said on NPR yesterday, said the post-war decision to exclude Iraqis from governing the country was "incompetent, foolish, dubious in all of its aspects." Carney was recently flown to Baghdad by the administration to avoid testifying before a congressional committee.
Bush administration regulators approved children's lunch boxes that were laden with more than 10 times hazardous levels of lead, then lied about it and refused to release details of their tests, an AP investigation revealed. The administration's excuse: food in the lunch boxes "may have an outer wrapping, a baggie, so there isn't direct exposure."
Military reporter James Crawley says yesterday's Army Times revelation "that Walter Reed patients had been barred from speaking with reporters is not the first case of tightened restrictions. In recent months, he says several MRE members have reported similar crackdowns. What's worse, many of the denials are apparently in reaction to the potential negativity of a planned story."
The departing U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias, charged yesterday "that two members of Congress attempted to pressure him to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections." All the members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have denied involvement except for Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), who have not responded to "repeated requests" for comment.
Six months since his last visit to New Orleans, and one month after failing to mention the Gulf region in his State of the Union address, President Bush "will find is a city of extremes, where life abounds in isolated areas and is eerily lacking in others."
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) "is in talks to become the Philadelphia Inquirer's newest op-ed columnist."
And finally: Richard Simmons gets Hill staffers sweatin'. Roll Call reports, "Simmons was in the Capitol and House office buildings on Wednesday, spreading joy -- and some unsolicited advice -- to unsuspecting staffers. ... He accosted one group of House staffers leaving the Longworth cafeteria. 'I need to check your lunches,' Simmons announced, according to one of the surprised, sandwich-toting aides. 'He approved of our sandwiches, but made me look him in the eye and promise not to eat my chips.'"
Wrap...
NOTE: See www.nytimes.com for story on General relieved of command...
Think Fast
Walter Reed officials have known of the deplorable conditions for at least three years. Joyce Rumsfeld, the wife of then-Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, was taken to Walter Reed last October "by a friend concerned about outpatient treatment." Mrs. Rumsfeld was told that her husband was being given a rosy picture of the hospital. Walter Reed officials proceeded to ban the friend who brought Mrs. Rumsfeld in.
For five years, the United States accused North Korea of pursuing a secret path to developing enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, an accusation that "resulted in the rupture of an already tense relationship." Now, the administration has quietly admitted its intelligence may have been faulty.
Amb. Tim Carney, a U.S. coordinator for Iraq's reconstruction, said on NPR yesterday, said the post-war decision to exclude Iraqis from governing the country was "incompetent, foolish, dubious in all of its aspects." Carney was recently flown to Baghdad by the administration to avoid testifying before a congressional committee.
Bush administration regulators approved children's lunch boxes that were laden with more than 10 times hazardous levels of lead, then lied about it and refused to release details of their tests, an AP investigation revealed. The administration's excuse: food in the lunch boxes "may have an outer wrapping, a baggie, so there isn't direct exposure."
Military reporter James Crawley says yesterday's Army Times revelation "that Walter Reed patients had been barred from speaking with reporters is not the first case of tightened restrictions. In recent months, he says several MRE members have reported similar crackdowns. What's worse, many of the denials are apparently in reaction to the potential negativity of a planned story."
The departing U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias, charged yesterday "that two members of Congress attempted to pressure him to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections." All the members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have denied involvement except for Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), who have not responded to "repeated requests" for comment.
Six months since his last visit to New Orleans, and one month after failing to mention the Gulf region in his State of the Union address, President Bush "will find is a city of extremes, where life abounds in isolated areas and is eerily lacking in others."
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) "is in talks to become the Philadelphia Inquirer's newest op-ed columnist."
And finally: Richard Simmons gets Hill staffers sweatin'. Roll Call reports, "Simmons was in the Capitol and House office buildings on Wednesday, spreading joy -- and some unsolicited advice -- to unsuspecting staffers. ... He accosted one group of House staffers leaving the Longworth cafeteria. 'I need to check your lunches,' Simmons announced, according to one of the surprised, sandwich-toting aides. 'He approved of our sandwiches, but made me look him in the eye and promise not to eat my chips.'"
Wrap...
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