Halliburton, Your Time Has Almost Expired
By Bob Geiger
Created Jan 9 2007 - 9:44am
In yet another sign that a change has come to Capitol Hill in the form of a
Democratic Congress that actually works for a living, Senator Patrick Leahy
[1] (D-VT), the new Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has
introduced two bills to crack down on the war profiteers who have been fed
so much money by the Bush administration.

Leahy wasted no time on the very first day of the 110th Congress last week
in proposing both S.118, the Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007
and S. 119, the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007.

"Last year, despite the mounting evidence of widespread contractor fraud and
abuse in Iraq, the Republican-controlled Senate would not act on it," said
Leahy, in re-introducing the War Profiteering Prevention Act on the Senate
floor. "Instead, the Congress took a terrible misstep in seeking to end the
work of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction."

Why America is no longer leader of the free world

By Ed Kociela
Created Jan 9 2007 - 9:18am

When the American people care more about the feud between Donald Trump and
Rosie O'Donnell than in an escalation of the war in Iraq, you know something
is terribly wrong.

But, there it is on television each night -- The Rosie vs. The Donald.

While our children continue to die in a hostile desert.

We've lost it.

We lost it when the president went with about a half-dozen contrived stories
for his invasion of Iraq.

We lost it when private companies with direct ties to the White House were
awarded contracts in Iraq without a bid.

We lost it when the United States sent troops into Iraq that were not
adequately equipped with protective armor.

We lost it when the Patriot Act was passed.

We lost it when the president allowed New Orleans to become less than a poor
village in a Third World country.

Bush's Rush to Armageddon

By Robert Parry
Created Jan 9 2007 - 9:15am

George W. Bush has purged senior military and intelligence officials who
were obstacles to a wider war in the Middle East, broadening his options for
both escalating the conflict inside Iraq and expanding the fighting to Iran
and Syria with Israel's help.

On Jan. 4, Bush ousted the top two commanders in the Middle East, Generals
John Abizaid and George Casey, who had opposed a military escalation in
Iraq, and removed Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, who had
stood by intelligence estimates downplaying the near-term threat from Iran's
nuclear program.

Most Washington observers have treated Bush's shake-up as either routine or
part of his desire for a new team to handle his planned "surge" of U.S.
troops in Iraq. But intelligence sources say the personnel changes also fit
with a scenario for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities and seeking violent
regime change in Syria.

Michelle Malkin's credibility, R.I.P.

By Eric Boehlert
Created Jan 9 2007 - 8:58am

It's time for warbloggers to find a new conspiracy theory to promote because
their most recent one, which involved accusing the Associated Press of
manufacturing a source in Iraq and colluding with the insurgents, blew up in
their faces. But don't look for detailed corrections, let alone heartfelt
apologies. Being a warblogger means not having to say you're sorry.

I've written extensively [0] about this controversy because I think it
perfectly captures the right-wing warbloggers and their never-ending goal to
undermine the press. Not with thoughtful, factual analysis -- which is
always welcome -- but by feverishly trying to undercut news reports that
might pose a problem for President Bush's war in Iraq and by shifting
attention onto the media. They want to simultaneously create confusion about
facts, while undermining news consumers' confidence in the mainstream news
media.

Nuclear Power Not Clean, Green or Safe

By Sherwood Ross
Created Jan 9 2007 - 8:47am

In all the annals of spin, few statements are as misleading as Vice
President Cheney's that the nuclear industry operates "efficiently, safely,
and with no discharge of greenhouse gases or emissions," or President Bush's
claim America's 103 nuclear plants operate "without producing a single pound
of air pollution or greenhouse gases."

Even as the White House refuses to concede global warmining is really
happening, it touts nuclear power as the answer to it as if it were an arm
of the Nuclear Energy Institute(NEI), the industry's trade group. NEI's
advertisements declare, "Kids today are part of the most energy-intensive
generation in history. They demand lots of electricity. And they deserve
clean air."

The Schwarzenegger Health Plan: A First Look

By RJ Eskow
Created Jan 9 2007 - 8:33am

Gov. Schwarzenegger provided an overview of his health plan [1] today. As
expected, it's based on the "mandated coverage" approach used in the
Massachussetts law and in Sen. Ron Wyden's proposed Healthy Americans Act.
If the plan's details bear out the impressions left by this summary there
will be some winners, some losers, and some - as Al Gore would say - in that
"little known third category."

First, the good news. The plan does appear to provide universal coverage,
especially for children. It also addresses the "invisible tax" that's
generated when medical providers treat the uninsured and bury the cost in
fees that wind up buried in insurance premiums.

It creates a purchasing pool for lower-income enrollees, which could be used
(we don't know if it will be) to lower rates and increase performance
requirements for insurers. It requires all employers to set up "Section 125"
plans, where employees can set aside pre-tax dollars to pay their
out-of-pocket health costs.

Bush Sees Hanging of Saddam as an Important Milestone for Iraq

By Bill Gallagher
Created Jan 9 2007 - 8:30am

- from the Niagara Falls Reporter [1]

CHIPPAWA, ONTARIO -- President George W. Bush is bursting with pride. He's
finally done something in Iraq with careful planning and efficiency.
Executing Saddam Hussein went off like clockwork. Just transfer him from
U.S. military custody to the Iraqi government, and Saddam's neck was snapped
in a jiffy.

Bush was resting and relaxing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he got
the wonderful news. If only all else in Iraq would go so smoothly. The
execution served as an example of the orderly "freedom" Bush thought would
be so easy to transplant in Saddam's old turf.

The Tower of Wealth Without a Foundation

By Siv O'Neall
Created Jan 9 2007 - 8:05am

Imperial arrogance - the road to chaos

The two mainstays of the neoconservative and neoliberal agenda can be
reduced to the accumulation of more wealth for the tiny upper clique of the
American population and to assuring the ever-lasting continuation of the
U.S. empire. The rest of the world is simply of no consequence to the neocon
way of thinking and that's where they make the huge mistake that is one day
going to be their downfall. Willful shortsightedness has always been their
hallmark and every day now it is looking ever more likely that their undoing
is imminent. When the base caves in, the tower will come tumbling down.

Will Democrats Tackle Class Warfare?

By Bob Burnett
Created Jan 9 2007 - 10:16am

The latest Gallup Poll [1] indicated that Americans have two fundamental
concerns: Iraq and the economy. We know that most Congressional Democrats
believe we should bring our troops home from Iraq this year, but what do
they think about our economy? Are the leaders of the 110th Congress prepared
to tackle class warfare?

For the past six years, the ultra-conservative Bush Administration waged war
on America's working families. Monday's New York Times provided fresh
evidence of this: Tax Cuts Offer Most For Very Rich [2...

Repeat After Me: It Is Not About The Oil

By Weldon Berger
Created Jan 9 2007 - 6:03pm

My long-held assumption about the genesis of the Iraq invasion is that the
liberation of Iraq's oil was only a welcome perk of the larger plan, which
was the creation of a US- and Israel-friendly country to serve as the
primary host for an expanded US Middle East military presence and a
convenient platform from which to launch the next wars against Syria and
Iran. I still think that's close to the truth, but Monday's White House
press briefing [1] strongly suggests that reality has illumed the corridors
of power sufficient to have reversed the priorities.

Q Tony, can you talk again about the President's confidence in Prime
Minister Maliki? He has said before about hitting these benchmarks -- back
in October -- it didn't happen. He said that there was going to be security
in Baghdad; the battalions didn't show up. What has changed over the past
few months? And where does the President stand today --