US Airways screwing workers & retirees -- AGAIN

The New York Times reports:

US Airways asked a bankruptcy court yesterday to throw out contracts covering passenger service agents, flight attendants, mechanics and other workers and replace them with less-expensive ones.

The airline also said it wanted to terminate its remaining traditional pension plans and replace them with cheaper retirement benefits like a 401(k) plan. It also plans to reduce substantially or eliminate health care coverage for retirees.

This is evil on so many fronts. First, flight attendants make an average of $50,491 per year. But they aren't the ones screwing the company. Bruce Lakefield, the company CEO who doesn't want to pay his flight attendants the wages the company is contractually obligated to pay, makes a salary of about $425,000 per year, plus 760,000 shares worth of stock options in the company. Of course, Lakefield has no intentions of giving himself a pay cut.

Before we crucify Lakefield, it should be noted that David Seigel, the former President and CEO of US Airways Group, made nearly $9 million in total compensation in 2003.

You also can't blame 9-11 for this problem. The feds gave $15 billion in cash and loan guarantees to the airlines just after the attacks. Of course, republicans filibustered to prevent direct assistance to airline workers, who clearly suffered the most. Funny how they didn't mind filibusters then.

In fact, worker salaries shouldn't be bothering the airlines at all -- they're almost completely predictable. Any decent manager can handle predictable costs. Retirees, however, shouldn't have to predict that promises made are promises broken -- and their health benefits are taken away after decades of service to the company.

The real volatility in the airlines' cost structure is fuel, which, of course, is ridiculously high, thanks to the war in Iraq and the global instability caused by the current administration.

Just the latest example of how working families get stiffed thanks to mismanagement and dishonesty from corporate execs and Republicans.
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Evening open thread

Think warm thoughts. Read More......

Krauthammer's "facts"

Joe reported earlier about Charles Krauthammer's op ed yesterday in the Washington Post - the one in which he tries to claim there was NO religious right mandate in the presidential election. MyDD.com says Krauthammer got his analysis wrong. Read More......

Vice President Giuliani

Cheney is in the hospital. I never believed Cheney had any intention of staying 4 more years in office. I don't think his heart can handle it, and I doubt his wife would let him. While Cheney *may* have been short of breath today, I wouldn't be surprised if this is part of a larger ruse to ease Cheney out of the vice presidency.

Either way, I doubt he's long for this office.

Who to replace him? I think Bush wants Giuliani. Giuliani was WAY too visible during the campaign. At least Bush will want Giuliani in SOME cabinet post. And I suspect he'd LOVE Giuliani to be VP.

The problem? The religious right will flip. Giuliani ain't one of their boys. He's pro-gay, pro-choice, and, well, let's just say that there is no way they would accept a president who has no problem appearing in drag (the photos below are REAL).



Not that this will deter Bush. Bush is pulling away from the Christian right, again, and they know it. That's why they're attacking Mary Cheney, among other signs. Bush will, as usual, try to cut the baby in half. Give the religious right something else - a renewed push on gay marriage? - in exchange for getting Giuliani as VP. The problem is that is simply isn't enough. This president's VP is more than window-dressing. He'll have great sway with the administration, and will be position as THE flag-bearer for the 2008 election.

And if Giuliani is the next president, the religious right is screwed. Read More......

I wish Barbara Bush had taught George to finish what he started

I can see how some might read this. Hey, it's just a letter, don't worry about it. Let me remind everyone that these are the same people the US trained to fight a years long war against the USSR, and in the end, they won. From BBC:

Reclusive Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has sent a new message to supporters, vowing to struggle for Afghanistan's 'independence'.

Mullah Omar sent a two-page message to the Afghan Islamic Press agency to mark the Muslim Eid ul Fitr festival.

He said the Taleban had 'far greater unity, brotherhood and steadfastness than before'.

Mullah Omar led the Taleban regime that ruled Afghanistan until it was overthrown by US-led forces in 2001.

His message comes on the third anniversary of the Taleban's flight from Kabul in as US-led forces marched on the city.

Mullah Omar said the jihad, or holy war, being fought by the Taleban was not aimed at 'getting to power'.

'If [the Taleban] wanted to secure power and material benefits, they could have made a deal with the Americans,' he said.
...
In Mullah Omar's latest message he again rounded on President Hamid Karzai:

'The puppet administration and agents are installed to destroy the courage and belief of the Afghans, their fate and their morally clean society.'

Mullah Omar has managed to elude capture despite the hunt by thousands of US-led forces.

There have been sporadic reports of sightings, including one in Quetta, south-west Pakistan, in November last year, but nothing substantiated.

He is believed to be hiding in the mountainous region along the Afghan-Pakistan border, as is al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Bin Laden himself delivered an anti-US message recently, shortly before the US presidential election.

Mullah Omar said that the US 'should know that we are determined to win the independence of our country'.

He added: 'I will not let you and your hopes down. I will not leave a shameful history as a legacy for our future generations.'

Instead of a long slog in one country, Afghanistan, we now have it in two. Sure, the war in Afghanistan seems pretty low key right now, but that's because the US hasn't committed the resources to rebuilding the country in the same way that we have in Iraq. This job is still left to be done, and the deposed leaders are still roaming free. You gotta finish what you started at some point. Read More......

This CIA crisis is big and bad

As David notes below, a number of very senior CIA officials are quitting in protest of the incompetence of Bush's new CIA director Porter Gos and his staff. Not only has the Deputy Direct of the CIA quit - that's the number 2 guy at the entire agency, and a very seasoned career official - but the Deputy Director of Operation has also quit. The Depty Dir. of Operations is the head of the spooks - i.e., the undercover operatives.

In a nutshell, the Bush administration has now politicized the CIA, and the agencies most experienced staff are now fleeing the sinking ship. It's difficult to explain how big a sin it is to politicize the CIA. It isn't done. The CIA exists to discover the non-partian, unbiased "truth" to the best of its abilities. It is NOT a place for partisan hacks (think Rumsfeld's yes-sir goons at the Pentagon). This mass exodus is a big hit to the CIA, and more generally, a big hit to our country's security.

These are NOT heads rolling because the people leaving are incompetent. These are COMPETENT people leaving because the CIA director and his immediate staff are incompetent. That is scary.

But hey, 51% of American voted for these idiots. And now they're, and we're, paying the price with our national security.

Again, this is a big BIG deal. And very scary. Read More......

No comment necessary

LA Times:

Bob Jones III, president of the Christian conservative Bob Jones University in South Carolina, recently urged Bush to purge moderates from the White House.

"If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them," Jones said in a letter to Bush after the election. "Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."

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Finally - A REAL update on Iraq

This article is why I love AP, Reuters, and the other wire services. They report the facts, not the spin. There has been a lot of Fallujah this, Fallujah that. Well, pay attention to what's going on over the entire nation of Iraq. The airport has been closed "until further notice", there are curfews throughout the nation. In short, it's really getting worse, not better.

READ THIS ARTICLE. READ IT ALL. It's long, which is unusual for a wire. Here are some teasers:

Police in Mosul largely disappeared from the streets, residents reported, and gangs of armed men brandishing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers roamed the city, 225 miles north of Baghdad. Responding to the crisis, Iraqi authorities dismissed Mosul's police chief after local officials reported that officers were abandoning their stations to militants without firing a shot.

Elsewhere, insurgents shot down a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, wounding three crew members, the military said. It was the third downed helicopter this week after two Marine Super Cobras succumbed to ground fire in the Fallujah operation.
...
Militants also assassinated the head of the city's anti-crime task force, Brig. Gen. Mowaffaq Mohammed Dahham, and set fire to his home.
...
In addition to firing the Mosul police chief, Iraqi authorities also dispatched four battalions of the Iraqi National Guard from garrisons along the Syrian and Iranian borders. Rob's note: I thought you had to close the border to prevent MORE insurgents from coming across the border?

Most of the reinforcements are ethnic Kurds who fought alongside American forces during the 2003 invasion -- a move which could inflame ethnic rivalries with Mosul's Sunni Arab population. Nevertheless, it appeared Iraqi authorities had no choice given the apparent failure of the city's police force to maintain order.

At a U.S. camp near Fallujah, Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said U.S. and Iraqi forces now occupy about 80 percent of the city, and that clearing operations are continuing to find caches of weapons and ammunition. Army and Marine units moved to tighten their security cordon around Fallujah, backed by FA-18s and AC-130 gunships. Rob's note: FA-18's and AC-130s, that sounds like a hot war to me, not just a fight against a few holdout insurgents.

Read the entire article. Get yourself informed about what's really going on. Read More......

Memo to Ashcroft: Get the FUCK out of my country

David has already mentioned this story in a post below, but again I had to weigh in because this is just so outrageous. John Ashcroft is now saying that federal judges jeopardize national security by questioning Dear Leader's policies. It's hard to overstate how dangerous and un-American Ashcroft's comments really are.

Judges don't threaten national security by keeping the executive branch honest. People like John Ashcroft jeopardize our entire democracy with their dangerous authoritarian, anti-democratic, and downright un-American utterings. This man should be railroaded out of the country and sent to a fundamentalist Islamic state where he can hang out with people of his same narrow-minded imperious ilk.

From AP:

Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.

In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.

"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers group.

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Continued Fundamentalist Violence in the Netherlands

Fundamentalism and the cycle of violence is continuing its rise in the Netherlands. From BBC

A fire has badly damaged a mosque in the Netherlands, in what may be the latest in a series of arson attacks.

Police said the small wooden mosque, in the south-eastern village of Helden, near the German border, had caught light early on Saturday.

They said it was not immediately clear if arsonists were behind the attack.

There have been more than 20 incidents of fires or vandalism at Muslim buildings since the murder of the controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

There has also been a string of retaliatory attacks on Christian churches.

A police spokeswoman in Helden said the mosque was now unusable as most of it had burnt down. No-one was hurt in the fire.

Attack, counterattack. Fear of "the Other" on both sides has moved from words into deeds. Should we be surprised? Is this not what is at work in Iraq? What's going on in Europe should be seen as either a warning to change or a preview of what's to come here at home. Read More......

Ashcroft to judges: Shut up and do as you're told

Ashcroft, just before he leaves the Justice Department, says freedom-hating judges are compromising our national security. Gosh, all these judges saying prisoners should have fair trials, and torture is bad, and all sorts of America-hating filth. It's amazing we found these wackos to sit on the bench in the first place. I mean, how many law degrees can you find in the people's republic of Brookline, Massachusetts?

I think I liked him better when he was putting taxpayer-funded drapes on statues with naked boobies.
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Langley, we have a problem

Seems like the CIA folks aren't exactly thriled with their new bosses. Washington Post reports that the Deputy Director has resigned after warning that "widespread resignations" are on the way under Porter Goss' current (lack of) leadership.

Normally, I'd say this is just a house cleaning under a transition, and some feathers are being ruffled, and it's no big deal. But the Deputy Director leaving is a very big deal. And we can't forget the CIA has been getting it RIGHT about bin Laden, and got it RIGHT that Iraq wasn't the problem. It's just that this isn't the information the white house wanted.

David Brooks at NYT says the CIA is now the "enemy." Why? Because people at the CIA dared to speak up when their bosses at the White House ignored them. "Enemy" is a pretty strong accusation, and Brooks knows it.

Earth to Brooks: This white house OUTED a covert CIA operative for political reasons. A lot of people know who did it, but they will let journalists go to jail for refusing to reveal the traitor's name. THERE'S your enemy. Novak is the one who published the operative's name. THERE'S your enemy.

Sadly, Brooks goes on to admit he "mischaracterized" comments John Kerry made about the screw-up in Tora Bora. Mischaracterized, my ass. He's not an idiot. Brooks lied. He knew he lied. And he waited until after the election to say so.
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