Chevron settles on Iraq oil-for-food scandal

What one minute. I thought the dirtbags involved in this disgraceful activity with Iraq were limited to France, Germany, Putin and everyone else who was against the US invasion of Iraq. The second largest oil company in America settles for $30 million to put this scandal behind them though it's much more of a whimper compared to the venom spewed by the media and administration just a few short years ago. Who would imagine that a good old Texas company was involved in such a program?

Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX - News) agreed to pay $30 million to resolve criminal and civil liabilities related to procurement of oil under the United Nations oil-for-food program, U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Chevron, the No. 2 U.S. oil company, obtained Iraqi oil under the program from third parties that paid secret, illegal surcharges to the former government of Iraq, prosecutors said.

Chevron will not be prosecuted and will continue to cooperate with investigators, prosecutors said.

Read the rest of this post...

House approves Iraq spending bill with timelines for troop withdrawal

Bush wants another $200 billion for his war in Iraq with no strings. By a 218 - 203 margin, the House just voted to give him only one fourth of that request, $50 billion, for four months -- with strings as The Gavel explained:

· Require the start of the redeployment of U.S. forces within 30 days of enactment, with a goal for completion of the redeployment by December 15, 2008.

· Require a transition in the mission of U.S. forces in Iraq from primarily combat to: force protection and diplomatic protection; limited support to Iraqi security forces; and targeted counterterrorism operations.

· Prohibit deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq who are not fully trained and fully equipped;

· Include an extension to all U.S. government agencies and personnel of the current prohibitions in the Army Field Manual against torture.

Bush already promised he'd veto this bill. It's his war. He started it. He wants all his money. And he'll spend it however he what he wants to. That's the way Bush had done it for six years -- and he doesn't think that should change now.

We know Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues will do everything possible to keep the war going. The question is whether the Democrats will cave -- again -- or whether they'll join the overwhelming majority of Americans who want to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and an end to this war.

At today's press briefing, Dana Perino, speaking for the Bush administration, said all of those Americans who oppose the war and want it to end are "radical" and is "the height of irresponsibility." Actually, most Americans think Bush's war in Iraq is the height of irresponsibility. Those Bushies really are sick, sick, sick people. Read the rest of this post...

Foreclosures to be in the news during 2008 campaign

Just look at the worst hit states today: California, Ohio and Florida. California may not be as critical in the campaign but Ohio and Florida? Queuing up for 2008 bad news is Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. This could have a very interesting impact next year because the story will not be disappearing. If anything, it will be even more present as the market pain drags out. Read the rest of this post...

What do Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe think of calling women "bitches"?

Both GOP Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have endorsed John McCain for president. The media needs to ask them what they think of John McCain's silence, then agreement that it was an "excellent question," when a questioner at a McCain event called Hillary Clinton a "bitch."



The appropriate response when someone calls your opponent, a woman, a "bitch" in public, and you're running for president, is to immediately say "okay, that kind of language really isn't appropriate" and then you give a small lecture about how we're all one country, etc. The appropriate response isn't to make a joke back and say that it's an excellent question. I mean, would John McCain have sat back and laughed if a questioner called Rudy Giuliani an asshole? Somehow I doubt it.

The sad thing is that a week ago or so Hillary's campaign was wrong to pull the woman card and say that she was being beaten up for being a woman. This week, that's exactly what's happening. Presidential candidates don't get to sit back and tacitly agree with people who refer to other presidential candidates as "bitches." It's not just inappropriate, it's not very presidential either. It's not the first time McCain has had a "not very presidential" bimbo eruption, and sadly it looks like it won't be the last. Read the rest of this post...

FEMA has its own rap song

I'm divided about this story in today's Washington Post. I get the need to educate kids about terrorism, well, kind of. Like tornado drills in the midwest, or earthquake drills out west (they do have such things in schools in California, right?), it's good to have kids be prepared in case of disaster. But. There's something very Soviet hiding just under the covers here. Teaching a whole new generation to be afraid, very afraid, of the big bad foreign man with the funny accent. I don't know. I'm divided on this, because I do think that, like Israel has done probably the best of any country, we need to educate our people more about suspcious packages and the like.

(I remember once at Dulles Airport outside of DC, it's our international airport, it was the first year after September 11 and there was a suspicious half-opened box just sitting there in the middle of the international check-in area, abandoned on a chair, no one near it. It even, I seem to recall, had some stuff dangling out of it - it was suspicious as hell. I reported it dutifully to the airline check-in staff behind the desk and they pretty much laughed at me. I raised a bit of a stink so one staffer finally just walked over and picked the box up and turned it upside down and shook it (that was smart). It turned out to be nothing, but had it been something, that airline employee (and the rest of us standing there) would be dead because of their ignorance. Anyway, moral of the story: We have a lot of education to do.)

Anyway, FEMA even has a disaster rap song for the kids. Only the government could use the word "mitigation" in a song for kids. I also like how the USG is teaching kids to use improper grammar.

Disaster . . . it can happen anywhere,

But we've got a few tips, so you can be prepared

For floods, tornadoes, or even a 'quake,

You've got to be ready -- so your heart don't break.

Disaster prep is your responsibility

And mitigation is important to our agency.

People helping people is what we do

And FEMA is there to help see you through

When disaster strikes, we are at our best

But we're ready all the time, 'cause disasters don't rest.

You can apparently hear the song here. Read the rest of this post...

Surprise

Like I said earlier today, nothing to see here, move right along. From AP:

House Democrats defiantly pushed ahead Wednesday with a $50 billion war spending bill that calls for troops to leave Iraq, despite concerns raised by some members of the party and a veto threat issued by the White House....

Democratic leaders initially said Wednesday they expected the bill to pass. But by mid-afternoon, the prospects were less clear. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., convened a meeting of the bill's supporters and asked them to help her round up votes.

And let's be clear. If bush vetoes the bill, he'll then call the Democrats un-American, talk about how we're putting the troops in danger, and the Dems will cave like they always do. Then the whole story won't be about how the Republicans are to blame for continuing the war, it will be about how weak and spineless and divided the Democrats are. So, seriously, you've pulled that football away one too many times, Lucy, for me to get excited about any of this or any of you any more. Read the rest of this post...

Secret Gitmo document leaked

For real.

A never-before-seen military manual detailing the day-to-day operations of the U.S. military's Guantánamo Bay detention facility has been leaked to the web, affording a rare inside glimpse into the institution where the United States has imprisoned hundreds of suspected terrorists since 2002.

The 238-page document, "Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures," is dated March 28, 2003. It is unclassified, but designated "For Official Use Only." It hit the web last Wednesday on Wikileaks.org....

Dakwar sees hints of Abu Ghraib in a section instructing guards to use dogs to intimidate prisoners. He also raises concerns over a section on the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, which indicates that some prisoners were hidden from Red Cross representatives.

You can find the entire document here. Read the rest of this post...

ACTION ALERT: Say no to Verizon and AT&T;'s spying

DKos and FDL have it right. The Senate shouldn't be condoning illegal spying on innocent Americans, and it shouldn't be giving corporate donors a get-out-of-jail-free card in response to their gross negligence. Visit those sites and take action to help the Senate Judiciary Committee members make up their minds for tomorrow's vote. This is the kind of thing we can actually win - influencing a small number of members is doable, even with this Congress and these Democrats. So please do weigh in. Read the rest of this post...

No more kings

I actually got goosebumps watching this. Partly because I haven't watched this episode of Schoolhouse Rock since I was a kid, and it's one of my favorites. But also partly because we forget sometimes that we're all part of a big historical experiment that was founded on something greater than an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing government, the suppression of dissent, and the wanton violation of civil liberties. (Well, actually, we were founded on all those things, but it was the other guy who was doing them to us.) For all the patriotic claptrap that the Republicans spew, they so don't understand, or care to understand, what this country is really about, what patriotism is really about, what America is really about. Who'd have ever imagined that one little cartoon could so perfectly encapsulate the problem of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the modern Republican party.

Read the rest of this post...

US Bridge Federation doesn't want to upset the Chinese dictators

You see, as the United States Bridge Federation (USBF) sees it, China is a country that doesn't like political dissent. So American bridge players need to show respect for China's dictatorship, and China's need to enforce absolute rule in order to basically hold a billion-plus people prisoner, by making sure that our bridge players don't showcase any of those nasty American values like "free speech" while traveling in China.

USBF meet Yahoo. Yahoo meet USBF.

In a nutshell, per one of my readers, "at the recent world championship held in Shanghai, the women's team championship was won by a US team. At the victory banquet, some members of the team held up a sign saying 'we didn't vote for Bush.' "

Can anyone say Dixie Chicks? (More from the NYT.)

Well, the USBF, which is responsible for selecting teams for international competition, threw a conniption fit. And I can understand why. Yes, having a player invoke George Bush, pro or con, at an international event would give a non-partisan organization agita. I get that. Though the fact that the outburst happened in China certainly makes it more interesting, with China's record on free speech being, well, zilch. But even that strikes me as ancillary to this debate, or, it would have been ancillary to the debate until the USBF printed a statement on its Web site that basically says that the reason the outburst from the US team was bad is because China is a dictatorship and dictators don't like free speech.

That's seriously messed up.

Here's a snippet from the USBF's over-lawyerly statement about the incident:

Certain members of VCW [the US team that spoke out] have complained that the USBF apology to the WBF [World Bridge Federation] and the Chinese Contract Bridge Association for the VCW’s conduct was unwarranted. This reflects a complete disregard for the fact that the Chinese government, which does not exactly have a history of sympathetic views toward political dissent, provided the bulk of financial support for both the 2007 World Championship and the 2008 World Bridge Olympiad.

Woah, nelly! It's one thing to say that as a non-partisan organization you really would prefer avoiding political protests, from the left or right, during international (or even national events). I'm not sure that's okay, but I can understand the angst from the national organization. But invoking China's history of suppressing political dissent as a reason why we too should stifle political dissent is absolutely sickening.

As an aside, I can understand why the American team made the point that they didn't vote for Bush. Anyone who travels regularly abroad knows that wearing your anti-Bushism on your sleeve is the next best thing to Kevlar in terms of self-preservation. The world hates George Bush, they hate our government because of George Bush and the Republicans (and the war and Gitmo and more), and they're not very happy with the fact that Americans voted twice for the idiot. (Once, they can understand - mistakes happen - but twice? Second time you own him.) I routinely let people know that I didn't vote for Bush when I'm abroad. Why? Because the conversation routinely goes like this:

Them: You speak great [insert language here].

Me: Thank you.

Them: But you're American?

Me: Yes.

Them: So where are you from in America?

Me: Washington, DC.

Them: [stone silence accompanied by cocked head and odd stare.]

Me: I didn't vote for Bush.

Them: [Cold face melts to smile.] Ah... good! [Animated conversation continues, followed by new lifelong friendship.]

The thing is, I'm not kidding. That's quite literally a conversation I've had repeatedly, verbatim, with lots and lots and lots of foreigners. I am sick and tired of getting disparaging silence every time I say I'm from DC. Foreigners just assume that we support this idiot, and they loathe him, and us by extension, if they assume we support him, us. No more. I get that politics stops at the border. I get that we're supposed to rally around the flag when we're abroad. But George Bush isn't the flag. George Bush burns the flag every time he opens his mouth or lifts his pen. George Bush is an embarrassment to everything this country stands for, or stood for. So the notion that we should refrain from criticizing Bush when abroad, especially because it might upset dictators, is, well, something I have a hard time accepting.

So I get why the national team felt the need to speak out. It's high time more of us did. Read the rest of this post...

Questioning Obama's patriotism is so 2004

Whatever low life is taking that path and trying to dredge up the false madrassa story ought to be exposed because it's time to move on from that rubbish. Feel free to question his positions on the issues, but the "I'm more of a patriot than you are" argument is tired. Read the rest of this post...

US House to vote on more Iraq funding today, Democratic proposal to stop the war

Here we go again. The bill (pdf copy here) does the following:

- requires the primary purpose of the funds be to transition U.S. forces in Iraq to redeployment out of Iraq, not to extend the war
- bars torture
- requires all troops sent to Iraq to be "fully mission capable"
- requires the President to begin an "immediate and orderly redeployment" with 30 days of enactment of the bill
- sets a goal of all combat troops to be out of Iraq by December 15, 2008
- requires the Secretary of Defense to report every 90 days on how the redeployment is proceeding

That's nice. Now go away. Read the rest of this post...

The Bush plan - drag out the bad news until 2009

A real profile in courage with Dear Leader. Heaven forbid "the decider" was to take action on the economy that is crumbling before our eyes. (Of course, do we really want this team touching anything else considering their record?) The plan for now is to keep pushing it out and pushing it out and hope they can skate by untainted but yet another failure.

So the government is in the process of twisting the arms of Federal Reserve Board members to lower interest rates by as much as 2 percentage points over the next year, including potentially a whopping half-point cut next week. That will allow banks to go back to one of their favorite recession-delaying ploys: encouraging debt-strapped consumers to refinance their loans at lower rates.

If that doesn't work, the government has been making noises about creating something like a Marshall Plan for home foreclosures -- a giant bailout fund similar to one used during previous housing crises. Just for good measure, analyst Bove notes, the administration is engaged in other types of powerful job-creating fiscal stimuli as well, such as ramping up spending on defense, infrastructure and transportation construction. "The administration in power is not going to go into an election year in a recession," he insists.

These hazardous ploys would be aimed at papering over the nation's debt problems until after the November 2008 election, after which nobody currently in power really cares what happens.

Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

I've had problems with the Today Show in the past -- when I awaken to the screeching diatribes of Ann Coulter or Bill Donohue. But usually, I can glean some news from the first half hour. Not anymore. This week, the Today Show has dedicated itself to the case of a missing woman from Illinois. Matt Lauer has been interviewing the prime suspect all morning. It's the longest interview I've ever seen Lauer do. Meredith actually interviewed Geraldo Rivera about this case.

If the Today Show devoted a sliver of the time they've given to this case to some of the issues facing the nation, who knows what would happen. But, then they'd be a news show again.

And to top it off, Celine Dion is going to sing this morning live. Ugh.

I need a new morning routine.

So what is the real news? Read the rest of this post...

UK taxpayers to get stuck with bank failure bill?

Northern Rock led the way with the banking problems and now could be leading the way for taxpayer bailouts of banking greed and incompetence. Why should taxpayers pay for such failures? Nobody in Washington better get the same idea for the Wall Street failures. Wall Street created the problems and Wall Street can pay for their mistakes, on their own. Read the rest of this post...

Test of wills, Part II hits France

Sarkozy "The American" ran on a campaign to change France. The deficit in France is about the same as in the US even without an expensive war. The initial small strikes were only the first play in a long match with each sides seeing how the other would react. Now it's the real thing, with trains and metros shut down and power shortages coming via other unions. Students are in the queue and I'm sure there are a few other groups waiting in the wings.

The issue is whether to bring the rail worker unions into the norm with the rest of the population. Currently many can retire at 50 or 55 whereas those outside of the union are typically thrown on the street at that age with little hope of ever finding employment to finish their working life. One key argument that the government workers make is that their jobs are boring and they accept lower pay and better retirement plans. Hmm, how about everyone else that makes somewhat more money (though not drastically more) but has less and less job security?

Sarkozy still enjoys high general approval numbers though people are starting to doubt his capabilities to implement the change he spoke about in the campaign. The next few weeks will either break him, much as it did to Chirac when faced with strikes, or make him much more powerful. It's hard to say if either outcome is good for the country, but we shall know more soon. Read the rest of this post...