One More Reason to Win - Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

By W. David Jenkins III
Created Oct 30 2006 - 9:22am

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."
-- Edmund Burke

Sibel Edmonds once told me to "put aside 9/11" and instead concentrate on
the workings of the Defense Department, amongst other government
establishments, because what she had been trying to warn people about was
considered by those involved as nothing more than "business as usual." That
was the real danger. What she had discovered during her short time with the
FBI was so threatening to those doing such "business" that former Attorney
General, John Ashcroft, couldn't slap a gag order on her (and Congress) fast
enough. But a lot of us already know that.

The consequences of the death of empathy

By Robert Jensen
Created Oct 30 2006 - 9:16am

One of the most devastating consequences of unearned privilege -- both for
those of us on top and, for very different reasons, those who suffer
beneath -- is the death of empathy.

Too many people with privileges of various kinds -- based on race or gender,
economic status or citizenship in a powerful country -- go to great lengths
not to know, to stay unaware of the reality of how so many live without our
privilege. But even when we do learn, it's clear that information alone
doesn't always lead to the needed political action. For that, we desperately
need empathy, the capacity to understand the experiences -- especially the
suffering -- of others.

Too often in this country, privilege undermines that capacity for empathy,
limiting the possibilities for solidarity. Two examples from my recent
experience brought this home for me.

"Pity" party

Halliburton Motto: It's Cost Plus, Baby

By Evelyn Pringle
Created Oct 30 2006 - 9:10am

Halliburton's contracts for work in Iraq are what's known as costs plus
contracts, meaning that after all the costs for labor, materials and other
expenses are added together, the company makes its profit based on a
percentage of that total.

It certainly does not take a financial genius to figure out that under the
terms of such a contract, a company has every motive in the world to
increase the costs of every project to increase profits.

Since the minute Dick Cheney authorized the no-bid contracts for
Halliburton, the granddaddy of war profiteering has been ripping off
American tax payers left, right and center through the use of these cost
plus contracts and another clear-cut profiteering scheme was recently
revealed in testimony at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing.

On September 18, 2006, Julie McBride, a former Halliburton employee with the
company's Morale, Welfare & Recreation Department (MWR) in Iraq, testified
that "the mantra at Halliburton camps goes, 'It's cost plus, baby.'"

The Charnel House of Baghdad

By Mike Whitney
Created Oct 30 2006 - 9:00am

There are three things wrong with the current policy in Iraq.

Occupation, occupation and occupation.

Foreign occupation is the reason why over 90%% of Iraqis want the Americans
to leave their country. It is the reason why nearly 50%% of Iraqis believe
that it is justifiable to shoot American troops and why nearly 70%% of
attacks are on occupation forces. Representative John Murtha was correct
when he said, "We are inciting the problem;" our presence is a lightening
rod for violence.

Bush's promise to establish security in Baghdad is foolish and doomed to
failure. Security cannot be achieved under occupation because the foreign
troops are perceived as the enemy. This is not hard to grasp. We need only
to imagine how we would react if Iraqi soldiers were maintaining checkpoints
or arresting our people on the streets of America.

A Chat With Republican Race-Baiter Scott Howell

By Max Blumenthal
Created Oct 30 2006 - 8:54am

- from The Nation (posted here with permission) [1]

If a political attack ad crosses boundaries of good taste, is emotionally
manipulative, excessively ominous, twists facts, exploiting hot-button
issues of race, sex and terror, and winds up being condemned by civil rights
groups, the chances are that ad has been produced by Republican hitman Scott
Howell.

His most recent creation [2] strikes at the character of Tennessee
Democratic senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr., an African-American, by
suggesting he solicits sex with white Playboy playmates.

Original October Surprise (Part 3)

By Robert Parry
Created Oct 30 2006 - 8:14am

Editor's Note: Part 3 of our series about the "Original October Surprise" of
1980 addresses the troubling question of whether disgruntled CIA officers
collaborated with their former boss, George H.W. Bush, to sabotage President
Jimmy Carter's Iran-hostage negotiations -- and thus changed the course of
U.S. political history.

To read the first two parts of the series -- dealing with the inept
investigation by Indiana Democrat Lee Hamilton and the role of banker David
Rockefeller in the 1980 affair -- click here for Part 1 [1] or here for Part
2 [2]. The series is adapted from Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege: Rise
of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq [3]:

There are few threats to a democracy more serious than the possibility that
the nation's intelligence services would abuse their extraordinary powers
and secretly influence the election of the nation's leadership, in effect
turning their clandestine skills for manipulating overseas events on their
own country.

When Journalists Become Betrayers

By Douglas Watts
Created Oct 30 2006 - 12:10am

It's easy now to think that in the past, the press was "brave enough" to
tell the unvarnished truth, and now they are not. It's not true, of course.

Even a brief read of Neil Sheehan's excellent "A Bright Shining Lie"
illustrates his inability to accurately report his field observations of the
Vietnam War because of the timidity of editors and publishers 10,000 miles
away.

What has not changed is the timidity of the press to report what those in
power do not wish their constituents to hear. What has not changed is the
desire of readers to know what reporters hear and see with their own ears
and eyes.

What has changed is twofold. First, the consolidation of news media by the
collapse of "two newspaper cities" throughout the U.S.; and the
consolidation of electronic and print media holdings into a few companies by
the FCC. The second change is the Internet and email.

The Internet has become the 21st century analog of the samizdat of
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and Hungary of the 1960s and 1970s.

Foxtrot wrote:

Oh yeah, just another former World Bank chief economist from the
communist left.

--Jeff

MikeSoja wrote:

Ah, yeah, Boeing. That model of "free market" capitalism, with its
defense industry protectionism and cost-plus contracts. And that's
where Clinton went to announce a free trade deal. Oh, the irony!

Boeing - your tax dollars at work, AND PROFIT.

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 00:12:18 -0400, Al Klein
wrote:

The affiliations a doctor has with hospitals and clinics is very
different from the relationship a fast food worker have with
McDonalds.