President George W. Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to end a ban on offshore oil drilling, responding to consumer anxiety over soaring gasoline prices with a plan sure to anger environmentalists.
Bush said opening federal lands off the U.S. coast -- where oil drilling has been banned by both a presidential executive order and a congressional moratorium -- could yield about 18 billion barrels of oil.
That would meet current U.S. consumption for about 2-1/2 years, but it would likely take a decade or more to find the oil and produce it.
Still want to drill and destroy the only environment that we have to get a short term fix a decade from now or do you want to develop alternate sources of energy that could replace oil? That will never happen as long as oil men and their flunkies roam the halls of Congress and get installed as President of the United States.
Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have the nation fuming.
GOP senators shoved aside the Democratic proposal, arguing that punishing Big Oil won't do a thing to lower the $4-a-gallon-price of gasoline that is sending economic waves across the country. High prices at the pump are threatening everything from summer vacations to Meals on Wheels deliveries to the elderly.
To make matters worse they made sure that alternate sources of energy would lose their tax breaks.
Shortly after the oil tax vote, Republicans blocked a second proposal that would extend tax breaks that have either expired or are scheduled to end this year for wind, solar and other alternative energy development, and for the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation. Again Democrats couldn't get the 60 votes to overcome a GOP filibuster.
The GOP will continue to stand in the way of economic progress that could help the average family until there is a filibuster proof Democratic majority. Remember this come November and make them a permanent minority party if not an instinct party. If you are a middle class American and vote for more of this shit then you are worse than stupid, you are suicidal. Disgusting absolutely disgusting.
The multibillion-dollar banana company pleaded guilty earlier this year to making $1.7 million in illegal payments to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group from 1997 to 2004. Until now, three of its officers were under investigation for authorizing and approving the payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC, after federal prosecutors warned them in April 2003 that such bribes violated the nation's anti-terrorism laws.
"The United States gave serious consideration to bringing additional charges in this matter," prosecutors wrote in a memo filed in court yesterday. "In the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, the United States has decided not do so."
Of the 10 company officials with potential liability, those most under scrutiny were former Chiquita chief executive Cyrus Freidheim, former general counsel Robert Olson and former board member Roderick M. Hills, according to sources close to the probe. They and Chiquita had argued that the three men, who had disclosed the "protection money" payments to Justice officials, kept them going while awaiting advice that never came from then-Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff and then-Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.
If this had been a Muslim that had sent funds unwittingly to a charity that later supported terrorists in the Middle East, you can bet that person would have been sent straight to Guantanimo.
Political donations really do pay off!! Pay to play is alive and well in the United States.
Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans, Michael Brown, who bore the brunt of the criticism for the federal response to the storm, has moved into a career promoting disaster-response and data-mining technology for government agencies and private customers.
Brown, who served as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Katrina blasted New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, has not returned to New Orleans in nearly two years. His last stop was on Sept. 11, 2005, the day before he resigned under pressure.
The next time he sees New Orleans, Brown ruefully suggests, it may be in response to lawsuits resulting from Katrina, which left more than 1,000 dead and tens of thousands homeless.
This article calls him a salesman. He is clearly working as a lobbyist for these firms in assisting them in getting government contracts. he even plans to register as a lobbyist. The moral of this story is that even if you are a total incompetent, if you have the right connections door open for you.
This story is a true representation of how our current government works. If you think this current system is good then do nothing. If you feel it needs to be changed then become involved. We the people can change it.
I have avoided discussing this issue while the miners were still trapped inside but this story needs to be told. This story shows how political clout trumps workers safety and ultimately workers lives.
In 2003, when safety inspectors ordered the owner of a Utah coal mine where six workers have been trapped for more than a week to shut down one of his Ohio operations because of repeated safety problems, local press reports say he did not hesitate to flex his political muscle to get the inspectors off his back.
"I will have your jobs. They are gone. The clock is ticking," Young quotes Murray as saying at the meeting.
The notes then go on to say Murray dropped the name of a pair of powerful Republicans in order to underscore his own political clout.
"Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and last time I checked he was sleeping with your boss," Murray told the inspectors, referring to the senior GOP senator from Kentucky. The quote was repeated in an Oct. 2006 Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader article on McConnell's political influence.
McConnell - the Republican leader in the Senate - is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who oversees MSHA. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, McConnell has received $176,800 in campaign donations from mining interests since 2001.
Mitch McConnell is up for election in 2008. This issue must be used as a club to bludgeon him. Corporate money in politics is destroying this country and putting workers safety in jeopardy. When will the American people say enough is enough and demand reforms? There are six people trapped underground for one week who most likely lost their lives because the mine owner has friends in high places.
Robert Murray, the owner of Murray Energy has donated extensively to Republican causes and a quick look up on Open Secrets reveals a who's who in Republican politics. This is exactly what is wrong with the American political system.
I was contacted by Immigration Orange which is a blog that focuses on Immigration issues. Immigrant Orange focuses on migration countries and the inequality that forces people to leave their homes and loved ones for the hope of a better life in the United States. For many this journey is a matter of life and death.
Each country has its own set of problems that force its poor citizens to cross our borders illegally. I do not condone illegal immigration but I also do not blame the immigrant. I blame the home country where corruption and inequities have made daily life unbearable. There will never be an end to the problem of illegal immigrants within the United States until our government tries to understand why they come and takes diplomatic steps to change the economic policies of our southern neighbors. It must also tackle the massive corruption that is so pervasive in these countries. The problem is how do you tackle corruption there when it is also rampant right here.
Unfortunately United States firms help to destabilize countries to our south by not providing fair wages or decent working conditions. The North American Free Trade Agreement's only winners are the corporations. Citizens in both Mexico and the United States have not benefited. Manufacturing jobs that were once the backbone of the American Middle Class are now low wage jobs in Mexico under awful working conditions that have contributed to ever growing corporate profits and ever growing human misery.
Chiquita Brands International took this even further and funded terrorist activities within Colombia. I was stunned when I read this article.
Colombia's attorney general said Tuesday that his office would try to seek the extradition of eight executives from Chiquita Brands International, the Ohio banana company that last week admitted to paying $1.7 million to right-wing death squads that have killed thousands in this country's long civil conflict.
In a deal with the Justice Department, Chiquita last week agreed to plead guilty to doing business with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a coalition of paramilitary groups whose members have massacred peasants and murdered leftist activists for years. In agreeing to pay a $25 million fine, the company characterized the payments as extortion that helped protect banana workers in the northwest Uraba region near the border with Panama.
On its face those claims are bad but when you know the rest of the story you realize that the company didn't just pay extortion they helped arm this very group of killers.
Iguaran said that among the issues the attorney general's office is investigating in the Chiquita case is the November 2001 unloading of Central American assault rifles and ammunition at the Caribbean dock operated by the firm's Colombian subsidiary, Banadex. The smuggling operation was detailed in a 2003 report by the Organization of American States.
The Justice Department did not deal with the smuggling operation in its plea deal. Chiquita admitted making payments to the paramilitaries from 1997 to 2004, which Iguaran said violated Colombian law. On Sept. 10, 2001, the State Department declared the AUC, as the paramilitary coalition is known, an international terrorist group, making it a violation of U.S. law for a U.S. company to conduct business with the organization.
"This was a criminal relationship," Iguaran said. "Money and arms and, in exchange, the bloody pacification of Uraba."
On April 24, 2003, a board member of Chiquita International Brands disclosed to a top official at the Justice Department that the king of the banana trade was evidently breaking the nation's anti-terrorism laws.
Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael Chertoff, explained that Chiquita was paying "protection money" to a Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. Hills said he knew that such payments were illegal, according to sources and court records, but said that he needed Chertoff's advice.
Chiquita, Hills said, would have to pull out of the country if it could not continue to pay the violent right-wing group to secure its Colombian banana plantations. Chertoff, then assistant attorney general and now secretary of homeland security, affirmed that the payments were illegal but said to wait for more feedback, according to five sources familiar with the meeting.
Justice officials have acknowledged in court papers that an official at the meeting said they understood Chiquita's situation was "complicated," and three of the sources identified that official as Chertoff. They said he promised to get back to the company after conferring with national security advisers and the State Department about the larger ramifications for U.S. interests if the corporate giant pulled out overnight.
After reading this, my question was why the Justice Department went so easy on Chiquita and did not include the smuggling of arms to terrorists but instead just focused on doing business with this group. Could the answer to that question be found in the political donations of Chiquita Executives? Carl Lindner, the former chairman was a Bush pioneer in 2004 which means he raised over $200,000.00 and Cyrus Friedheim, the former CEO, has donated extensively to Republican causes. Check out Open Secrets and see for yourself.
Do you think that the situation would have been called "complicated" if the one paying the money was Muslim and the one receiving it was either Hamas or Hezbollah? It is incidents such as these that take away any credibility our country has on terrorism issues. We do nothing about Saudi Arabia which funds terrorism worldwide and more specifically funds the Sunni insurgents within Iraq. We do nothing while Pakistan harbors al-Qaeda and in the end we will do very little to Chiquita who helped arm a violent terrorist group within Colombia.
Chiquita claims they paid this to protect their workers but I think we all know they paid to protect their profits.
Two American civilian contractors who worked on a massive U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad told Congress yesterday that foreign laborers were deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq to toil at the site, where they experienced physical abuse and substandard working conditions.
Doesn't this just make you so proud to be an American? Wait it gets better. The company that the United States hired to build the embassy, First Kuwaiti, was engaged in what amounts to slavery.
Testifying before the committee yesterday, John Owens, an American who worked for First Kuwaiti at the embassy site as a construction foreman from November 2005 to June 2006, said he found living and working conditions for the foreign laborers there "deplorable." Because of difficulty hiring Iraqis for work inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, most of the laborers were from such countries as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Sierra Leone, the committee was told.
Foreign workers lived in tightly packed trailers and had "insufficient equipment and basic needs -- stuff like shoes and gloves," Owens said.
They worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and made as little as $240 a month, he said. They were "verbally and physically abused" and had their salaries docked for petty infractions, he added.
Rory J. Mayberry, an emergency medical technician who worked briefly at the embassy site under a subcontract, testified that he was asked by First Kuwaiti managers to escort 51 Filipinos through the Kuwait airport and onto a flight to Baghdad. However, "all of our tickets said we were going to Dubai," he said, adding that a First Kuwaiti manager instructed him not to tell any of the Filipinos that they were going to Baghdad.
He said the men were basically "kidnapped by First Kuwaiti to work on the U.S. Embassy." Their passports had been confiscated, and they were driven away on buses after landing in Baghdad, then were "smuggled into the Green Zone," he said.
Any wonder why our image in the world is ruined? It will take a generation to repair our image in the world. The Bush administration has done nearly irreparable harm to our place in the world.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is subpoenaing White House political adviser Karl Rove to compel him to testify about his role in the firing of 8 United States Attorneys.
Leahy says he's also subpoenaing White House political aide J-Scott Jennings.
Leahy says he's exhausted every avenue seeking the voluntary cooperation of Rove and Jennings.
Why are so many people willing to protect Karl Rove? He will never testify and when he doesn't a Contempt of Congress charge needs to be filed. These people feel they are above the law and while the Republicans had the majority they were. Times have finally changed.
The 22-17 party-line vote — which would sanction the pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors — advanced the citation to the full House.
It is about time that oversight and accountability are returned to Washington. Can you or I just ignore a subpoena?
These people are corrupt and need to be held to the same standard as every other American citizen. If they have nothing to hide why are they trying to hide everything? The American people need to demand answers to the many questions regarding corruption in this administration.
Gonzales said that he and Card had been urged by congressional leaders of both parties to take steps necessary to ensure that the unidentified intelligence program survive a looming deadline for its expiration. To do that, Gonzales said, he needed Ashcroft's permission.
At the time, Ashcroft was in an intensive care unit recovering from gall bladder surgery and Gonzales was Bush's White House legal counsel. Ashcroft had transferred the powers of his office to Deputy Attorney General James Comey.
"We went there because we thought it was important for him to know where the congressional leadership was on this," Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee in his first public explanation of the meeting.
Alberto Gonzales has a history of lying and can not be believed on this issue. Today's grilling at a Congressional hearing included statements of mistrust.
"The constitutional authority and responsibility for congressional oversight is gone," said Specter, the Judiciary Committee's senior Republican. "If that is to happen, the president can run the government as he chooses, answer no questions."
Glaring at Gonzales just a few feet away at the witness table, Specter declared, "The attorney general has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor."
"I don't trust you," Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, told Gonzales.
No one should trust Alberto Gonzales and a special prosecutor should be appointed to get to the truth of many issues. Where is the Democratic version of Ken Starr when you need him?
With the Bush administration using commutation of sentences and executive privilege to hide its criminal behavior the question becomes how can you uncover the truth with so much stonewalling. Today Harriet Miers attorney said she will not be showing up tomorrow in response to a Congressional Subpoena, at the orders of the President. Yes you read that right, she will not even show up. Apparently the Bush administration feels they are above the law but Congress has a seldom used tool in their arsenal. That tool is called "Inherent Contempt".
Under this process, the procedure for holding a person in contempt involves only the chamber concerned. Following a contempt citation, the person cited for contempt is arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House or Senate, brought to the floor of the chamber, held to answer charges by the presiding officer, and then subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment for punishment reasons, imprisonment for coercive effect, or release from the contempt citation.)
Concerned with the time-consuming nature of a contempt proceeding and the inability to extend punishment further than the session of the Congress concerned (under Supreme Court rulings), Congress created a statutory process in 1857. While Congress retains its "inherent contempt" authority and may exercise it at any time, this inherent contempt process was last used by the Senate in 1934, against the Postmaster-General. After a one-week trial in the Senate floor (presided by the Vice-President of the United States, acting as Senate President), the Postmaster-General was found guilty and sentenced to 10 days imprisonment.
The Postmaster General had filed a petition of Habeas Corpus in federal courts to overturn his arrest, but after litigation, the US Supreme Court ruled that Congress had acted constitutionally, and denied the petition in the case Jurney v. MacCracken
It is time for Congress to take swift action against these criminals and restore the rule of law to the executive branch of our government. Write and call your representatives and tell them about this seldom used tactic.
The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.
Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.
How can we believe anything that comes out of this administration? All administrations are political but this administration brings it to a whole new level.
You have to wonder was anything ever done for the good of the people or was everything about getting Republicans elected. With each passing day we find out more and more of the corrupt practices of this administration. Impeach them now, 2008 may be too late.
The White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available for private, off-the-record interviews.
In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers' demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege.
Wasn't it generous of President Bush to give them permission to testify in private and not under oath? What do they have to hide? Scooter Libby had his sentence commuted to keep his mouth shut.
This is a criminal administration who fears open testimony for fear it will lead to impeachment. The Congress needs to seriously look at impeachment if for no other reason than to show that the rule of all applies to all citizens including the President. If enough information is uncovered the likelihood of removal grows. That is the fear and the reason they obstruct justice at every turn.
"The president has decided to assert executive privilege and therefore the White House will not be making any production in response to these subpoenas for documents," White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont and Representative John Conyers of Michigan, chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
The White House resistance is likely to touch off a constitutional showdown over Congress's ability to investigate the firing of prosecutors and the president's ability to obtain frank counsel from advisers.
"The principles at stake here are of the utmost importance," Fielding said in the letter to lawmakers. "Presidents must be able to depend upon their advisers and other executive branch officials speaking candidly and without inhibition while deliberating and working to advise the president."
I thought Dick Cheney was not part of the executive branch? Lets all watch watch while the Republicans, who insisted Bill Clinton testify about a private affair, rally around this decision by the President. This is a criminal administration and needs to be held accountable.
Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal disputes within the administration over the legality of the program.
"Our attempts to obtain information through testimony of administration witnesses have been met with a consistent pattern of evasion and misdirection," Leahy said in his cover letters for the subpoenas. "There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee."
Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply.
"We're aware of the committee's action and will respond appropriately," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
This is a huge issue and will generate a constitutional crisis. The White House will not answer these subpoenas as they have operated as if they are above the law. Could this be the first piece of a puzzle whose ending is impeachment? What about Dick Cheney, will he claim executive privilege after saying he was not part of the executive branch of government?
This is what oversight looks like. The free ride is over for this criminal administration.
This is a very important story to read. It gives the real background of what happened in 2004 and how so many were kept from voting by this tactic called "caging".
The one thing to remember is that "Caging" is a felony and was most likely carried out by the RNC. Here is a link to the actual caging list. As you can see from this picture all of those on the list are from the Naval Station in Jacksonville. This was a deliberate attempt to stop soldiers from voting.
I can not think of a single more disgusting thing then sending them off to war to supposedly defend democracy then doing anything they can to stop them from exercising their right to vote. Is there anyone reading this that still thinks these people should not be in jail?
Read this post and you will understand why the US Attorney Firings is such an important issue. You will also begin to understand how George W. Bush was elected twice. This is just criminal.
The Bush administration may have committed ``extensive'' violations of a law requiring that certain records be preserved, said the committee's Democratic chairman, adding that the panel will deepen its probe into the use of political e-mail accounts.
The committee's interim report said the number of White House officials who had RNC e-mail accounts, and the number of messages they sent and received, were more extensive than previously realized. The administration has said that about 50 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts during Bush's presidency. But the House committee found at least 88.
This report cites "excessive" violations of law. Why has a special prosecutor not been called for? Why are the rules so different for this administration? Do you remember when candidate George W. Bush promised to restore honor and dignity to the White House?
This is the most corrupt administration in my lifetime and I was alive for Nixon. This President needs to be impeached and removed from office. I know that the likelihood of that is remote but impeachment, which is just an indictment, is more than possible in the Democratic controlled House of Representatives.
Shouldn't we demand impeachment if for no other reason than to show the world that the rule of law is important to the citizens of the United States and that no one is exempt?
The number of White House officials given RNC e-mail accounts is higher than previously disclosed.
White House officials made extensive use of their RNC e-mail accounts.
There has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC.
There is evidence that the Office of White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records.
Why are these people still in power and not facing criminal prosecution? When will the American people wake up and realize that this administration is not just incompetent (which they do realize) but also criminal (which most do not).
The disclosure could represent a serious legal threat to the embattled attorney general. Fine's office is empowered to refer matters for criminal prosecution if warranted.
The revelation also broadens the publicly known contours of the internal Justice Department investigation, which is examining the removal of the prosecutors as well as whether any laws or policies were violated in the hiring of career prosecutors, immigration judges and others.
In a May 23 appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Goodling testified that Gonzales had laid out his general recollection of events surrounding the prosecutor dismissals during a meeting between the two in March, as Goodling was preparing to leave the department. Gonzales asked whether Goodling "had any reaction to his iteration," and she said the conversation made her "a little uncomfortable" because of ongoing investigations into the issue, according to her testimony.
It sounds like our illustrious Attorney general could have been engaged in witness tampering which is a felony. Does anyone know why this unqualified hack is still our chief law enforcement official? This may turn up the heat enough to finally force him out.
The Justice Department should be as non political as possible. I understand that everything in Washington is political to some degree but this administration has crossed the line so often that no one is even sure where the line starts anymore.
Libby's attorneys asked that the order be stayed, but U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton denied that and told Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff that he had 10 days to appeal the ruling.
Libby was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for lying and obstructing the investigation into who revealed in 2003 that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA operative. He also was fined $250,000.
The drumbeat for a pardon will only become louder as a result of this decision. All you hear is that there was no underlying crime so why should he be sent to jail?
There was an underlying crime, the problem was that all the obstruction made it impossible to gather the evidence necessary to prosecute. Valerie Plame was a covert agent working on non-proliferation issues. Her outing caused national security damage that has never been disclosed. How many other operatives lives were placed in danger as a result of her outing? Where is the national damage assessment?
This was an act of treason and 2.5 years seems light to me. The President will pardon Mr. Libby to keep him from telling the truth and no one will be surprised.
A vulture fund is a financial organization that specializes in buying securities in distressed environments, such as high-yield bonds in or near default, or equities that are in or near bankruptcy. Vulture funds target not only companies but also whole countries.
In the African country of Zambia, over 70 percent of people live in poverty. The average wage is just over a dollar a day, one in five people are infected with HIV/AIDS and life expectancy is merely 37.7 years. Yet, in the midst of qualifying for debt cancellation by G-8 nations, the Donegal Corporation, owned by American businessman Michael Sheehan, bought Zambian debt from Romania. In April, British courts awarded Donegal 15 million dollars, almost five times the value Donegal paid for the debt.
The morally bankrupt actions of vulture funds render the commitments to debt relief made by the U.S. and other wealthy nations meaningless. U.S. taxpayer money, pledged to provided relief and assistance through debt relief, will fall into the hands of these greedy corporations. At the upcoming G-8 Summit President Bush should call for a commitment by world leaders to address debt relief and vulture funds. The U.S. Treasury should follow the lead of U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown and limit the awards vulture funds can claim for these debts. Congress must examine this practice and its impact on our overall foreign policy interests. The international community must employ effective means to protect countries like Zambia who have fallen prey to these vulture funds, including implementing fair and transparent international mechanisms to resolve these matters.
Michael Sheehan, the main owner of Donegal Corp. is also a huge contributor to the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani. Remember that old saying "You can judge a man by his friends", what does that say about Rudy Giuliani?
Many have speculated about the real reason for the Iraq War. Is there anyone who still believes that it was the weapons of mass destruction, liberation of the Iraqi people, part of the war on terror or any of the other seemingly endless excuses for this disaster? Today while listening to Randi Rhodes of Air America I heard an interview with Antonia Juhasz, an analyst with Oil Change International. What she had to say was startling.
TODAY more than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn’t always this way.
Until about 35 years ago, the world’s oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world’s largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back.
Lets think about what she is saying in detail. She believes our sons and daughters are dying to protect the profits of oil companies.
There is a law before the Iraqi Parliament which would give over control of most of Iraq's oil wealth to foreign oil companies to the detriment of the Iraqi people.
A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal. The Iraq hydrocarbon law would take the majority of Iraq’s oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.
In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force), which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.” One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.
Now we know why Dick Cheney has kept whom he met with such a closed secret. This sounds more like an episode of the Sopranos then it does legitimate energy policy. This is theft pure and simple, but wait it gets even better.
The foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire Iraqi workers or share new technologies. They could even ride out Iraq’s current “instability” by signing contracts now, while the Iraqi government is at its weakest, and then wait at least two years before even setting foot in the country. The vast majority of Iraq’s oil would then be left underground for at least two years rather than being used for the country’s economic development.
Passage of this law which allows oil companies to rape Iraq is part of the benchmarks included in the new war funding bill.
Since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the president’s benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fact that Mr. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. William Casey, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other administration officials are publicly emphasizing with increasing urgency.
As more and more of our soldiers are killed I want you to remember that they are dying for ever larger oil company profits. Our tax dollars are being used for the largest heist in world history. Think of that as you put the yellow ribbon on the car but do nothing else to stop this war. Iran may be next unless we learn from our mistakes.
I have tried to lay this out in a way that is easy to understand. Please send this post to everyone you know and ask that they do the same. Imagine if the people of the United States realized exactly what was happening. I would suggest that everyone clicks the link on the side of this page and purchases this book by Antonia Juhasz then calls their elected officials and demand impeachment.
A decision has not been made as to whether he will be allowed to remain free pending his appeal. Hopefully he will be required to report to prison immediately. As it was recently reported again, Valerie Plame was indeed a covert agent at the time her cover was blown by this administration. A quick background on this story was that her husband was sent to Africa to examine reports that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellow cake uranium from Niger and discovered the allegations were false. He further reported these findings to the CIA yet President Bush in his State of the Union Address in 2003 went on to state this as fact. This was the first reason for the war in Iraq.
What should not be lost in this discussion is the fate of those who worked with Ms. Plame around the world. Her outing certainly damaged national security and put those that she worked with at great risk. How can an administration that claims to call homeland security its number one priority willfully disclose the identification of a covert CIA agent? It should also not be forgotten that her undercover work for the CIA was involved with stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction. This is a criminal administration that will do anything, including putting a covert agents life on the line, to further its political agenda.
So how soon will the pardon come? If he is sentenced to start serving his time immediately the call for a pardon will be intense among Libby's supporters. He broke the law and damaged national security 2.5 years sounds like a light sentence to me.
US authorities said Saturday they had averted an attack that could have resulted in "unfathomable damage, deaths, and destruction," and charged four alleged Islamic radicals with conspiracy to cause an explosion at the airport.
John Goglia, a former member of National Transportation Safety Board, said that if the plot had ever been carried out, it would likely have sparked a fire but little else, and certainly not the mass carnage authorities described.
"You could definitely reach the tank, definitely start the fire, but to get the kind of explosion that they were thinking that they were going to get... this is virtually impossible to do," he told AFP.
Now the real question should be what news were they trying to hide by breaking this story? Could it be the resignation of Tim Griffin who is becoming embroiled in the US Attorney firings? Seems Mr. Griffin was involved in a practice called caging which is a way to disenfranchise voters. Now that is the type of person we need as a US Attorney. Wake up America you are being duped once again.
The state government alleges Pfizer selected children and infants from crowds at a makeshift epidemic camp and gave about half of the group Trovan, which it says was untested at the time.
If this is true it validates every suspicion that people have about big pharmaceutical companies. Profits come before safety or ethics.
The Washington Post newspaper in the United States said it obtained internal Pfizer records that showed five children died after being treated with Trovan. However, "there is no indication in the documents that the drug was responsible for the deaths. Six children died while taking the comparison drug," the paper said.
Clinical trials are necessary for all drugs and I support that process. Using an unapproved drug on children in a poor country is a disgrace. If this allegation is true those involved should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Nigerian law.
The FDA is failing us miserably and its time for action. This agency has been decimated during the past six years and our health is at stake because of it.
This could be the second Monica who opened her mouth at the wrong time and took down a President. The difference with this one is that the activities she will be discussing could very well be criminal. Alberto Gonzales has claimed the memory of an Alzheimer´s patient on this scandal. Lets see if Ms. Goodling´s testimony jogs his memory. What everyone needs to listen for is the real reasons for the firings. It is becoming more and more clear that the Justice Department was being used as an arm of the Republican Party. Prosecutors were expected to go after Democrats and not investigate Republicans. This should be very interesting television. You can watch this live on C-Span or stream it here.
After watching this testimony from Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, it is obvious that Alberto Gonzales lied in his Senate testimony. This should be required viewing for all Americans. We all need to wake up and realize that we are living through the most corrupt administration in our nations history.
Once you read this story it becomes very obvious that the two things missing from the Justice Department were justice and impartiality. The department became a place where loyalty to President Bush took precedent over experience.
Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers.
“You have a Monica problem,” Ms. Ashton was told, according to several Justice Department officials. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, “She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.”
Exactly what does being a Democrat have to do with your ability to administer justice? How can anyone respect or trust this Justice Department when it is obvious that guilt or innocence meant less than political affiliation, competence worth less than loyalty to President Bush. How unqualified people became so important in this administration is as much the story as the firings of the prosecutors. The attorneys that were not fired could become as large a part of the investigation as those that were. What exactly did they need to do to keep their jobs? A complete investigation needs to be done and those responsible, such as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, need to be removed from office. His lack of memory should be reason enough to be removed. In the weeks ahead the "Monica Problem" will grow. Will those that called for President Clinton to be impeached for his "Monica Problem" be as steadfast with the current administration? The corruption in this administration stinks worse than the NJ Turnpike at rush hour. Its time to end the stink and restore truth and justice to the Justice Department.
