Halliburton Overcharged Millions

WASHINGTON Dec. 11 — Pentagon auditors found that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company overcharged by possibly as much as $61 million for gasoline in Iraq, senior defense officials said Thursday.

Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, also submitted a proposal for cafeteria services that was $67 million too high, the officials said speaking on the condition of anonymity. The officials said the Pentagon rejected that proposal.

Halliburton CEO was quoted as saying, "what's the big deal, all this was cleared by Dick years ago. The auditors should get with the program, don't they know what a shredder is for?"

This is what gets me though:

Defense officials said the Pentagon was negotiating with KBR over how to resolve the fuel overcharging issue. Emphasis Mine.

Okay, how about this: we get the money back, they get fined, they lose contract. Negotiations over. Okay Bechtel, please have a seat your up next.

- rob 1:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

U.S. officials rejected plan for Iraqi census

Okay, so if you are fine that the reason we went to war with Iraq has changed from protecting America from imminent threat to giving Iraqi's good old American style democracy, then you should still be pissed that we're doing crap like this:

BAGHDAD Iraqi census officials devised a detailed plan to count the country's entire population next summer and prepare a voter roll that would open the way to national elections in September. But U.S. officials say they rejected the idea, and Iraqi Governing Council members say they never saw the plan.
...

The American plan for Iraqi sovereignty proposes instead a series of caucus-style, indirect elections. Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, is calling for national elections in June, not the indirect balloting specified in the American plan. But U.S. officials and some Iraqis say the country is not ready for national elections, in part because the logistics are too daunting.

Well since we seem unable to have fair voting in many regions of the United States, I can understand our trepidation, but again, if this is about democracy, if Iraq is supposed to be a beacon of freedom in the middle east then we should damn well do it. Logistics is one of the best things about our military. Really. We're frighteningly impressive when it comes to that.

Or by western democracy did we mean Texas style democracy where voting districts are mapped in ways to insure a certain outcome.

Bush does get the United States and Texas confused quite frequently.

- rob 1:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

IslamOnline - Iraq Close to Civil War, Warn Iraqis

You know, outside the US, the Iraqi coverage is pretty damn somber, not that it reads like a party in the US.

Iraqi intellectuals living both inside Iraq and as members of the expatriate community in Europe and North America are warning that Iraq is perilously close to a civil war in light of recent events and decrees issued by both the US Civilian Provisional Authority (CPA) and the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC).

- rob 1:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Businessmen use Bush link to win deals

Neil reminds me of the boy in town when I was growing up that had all the cool toys and always had food to eat, and that was his only means of getting friendship. Poor Neil, instead of cool toys he has his last name, and with it came every job and every friend he's ever had. That has got to really negatively weigh on man's soul.

Two businessmen instrumental in setting up New Bridge Strategies, a well-connected Washington firm designed to help clients win contracts in Iraq, have previously used an association with the younger brother of President George W. Bush to seek business in the Middle East, an FT investigation has found.


John Howland, the company president, and Jamal Daniel, a principal, have maintained an important business relationship with Neil Bush stretching back several years. In Mr Daniel's case, the relationship spans more than a decade, with his French office arranging a trip for Mr Bush's family to Disneyland Paris in 1992, while his father, George H.W.Bush, was president.

On several occasions, the two have attempted to exploit their association with the president's brother to help win business and investors.

Three people contacted by the FT have seen letters written by Neil Bush recommending business ventures promoted by Mr Howland, Mr Daniel and his family in the Middle East. Mr Daniel has also had his photograph taken with the elder Mr Bush. Such letters and photographs can be valuable props when doing business in the Middle East.

Mr Daniel's Houston investment fund, Crest Investment Corporation, employs Neil Bush as co-chairman. Crest Investment also helped fund Neil Bush's Ignite!, an educational software company. Mr Daniel sometimes introduces himself as a founding backer of Mr Bush's company, a Middle-Eastern businessman who has met him said, and has persuaded the families of prominent leaders in the region to invest.

Thanks to atrios.

- rob 12:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Umm... why does George Bush need over $100 million for a primary season in which he is the only one running? Could it be he is beginning to suspect he is unelectable?

(just helping out the latest Google Bomb attempt... feel free to make a link to George Bush's bio from the word unelectable on your website. It's fun for the whole family).

- rob 11:53 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

do some clicking for good causes today.

(try also: The Rainforest Site, and the others)

- rob 10:36 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

More of Bush's version of American Justice (hint... more like texas justice)

Terrorism defendants seek verdict reversal

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's first major post-Sept. 11 prosecution, which broke up a terrorist cell in Detroit, is in danger of unraveling after the Justice Department divulged it had failed to turn over evidence that might have helped the defense. The evidence includes a letter from an imprisoned drug gang leader who alleges the government's key witness confided he made up some of his story.

The December 2001 letter, which could have been used by defense lawyers to challenge the prosecution witness during the trial this spring, wasn't turned over until a couple of weeks ago.

The defendants are now asking that their convictions be overturned, and the judge has scheduled an emergency hearing for tomorrow to demand an explanation from the government.

- rob 2:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

America under Bush: We send Canadians to Syria to be tortured - your grandchildren's tax dollars at work

Delivered Into Hell by U.S. War on Terror

I recently spent 10 1/2 months in a grave-sized cell in Syria, unsure why I was there, unsure how to get out. Fear paralyzed my wits when I needed them most. I was beaten and I was tortured and I was constantly scared. Every day I worried that I would never be released, that I would disappear into that concrete grave forever.

Why was I being held? I still don't really know. I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of Al Qaeda. I am a Syrian-born Canadian. A father and a husband. A telecommunications engineer. I have never been in trouble with the police and have always been a good citizen.

My ordeal began on the afternoon of Sept. 26, 2002, when my flight back from a family vacation in Tunisia stopped over in New York and American immigration officials pulled me aside to answer a few questions. At first it was only an inconvenience — thorough airport security, post 9/11-style. But my questioners persisted. And when someone waved a copy of the 1997 lease for my Ottawa apartment, I was shocked and confused. What was going on here? Who gave them the lease and what was its significance to them? For the first time, I began to realize that the questioning was not simply routine.

My interrogation in the United States took days. Shuttling in shackles among immigration officials, FBI agents and police officers, I asked repeatedly for a lawyer but was told that I didn't have the right to one because I was not an American citizen. There were no phone calls home either.

Only after days of often abusive, insulting, degrading questioning about whom I knew and what I was up to (besides computer work for my Boston-based employer) was I finally permitted to use a telephone.

But still I couldn't see the full picture. In the early hours of Oct. 8, 2002, I was formally notified that the U.S. government had classified information about me that it would not reveal — and it would be deporting me that very day, without a word to my family, to the long-forgotten place of my birth, Syria.

To this day, unnamed American officials continue to allege that I have ties to Al Qaeda, although I have not seen the details and I have not been charged with a crime.

I hadn't been to Syria since moving to Canada with my family when I was 17. For half my life I have had no connection at all to that country. Yet I would surely be tortured, I told my New York captors, because I'm a Sunni Muslim; because my mother's cousin had been accused of being in the Muslim Brotherhood and imprisoned for nine years; because I had left the country before undertaking my military service.

My arguments were useless. Soon I was in a small private jet, chained and panic-stricken; then in a succession of cars in Jordan and Syria, blindfolded and beaten repeatedly; and finally placed in that shallow grave.

I describe my cell in Syria as a grave because it was just 3 feet wide, 6 feet long, 7 feet high and unlit. While I was there I sometimes felt on the verge of death after beatings with a black electrical cable about two inches thick. They mostly aimed for my palms but sometimes missed and hit my wrists. Other times, I was left alone in a special "waiting room" within earshot of others' screams. At the end of the day, they would tell me that tomorrow would be worse. In those 10 1/2 months I lost about 40 pounds. I never saw, but only heard, the agony of my fellow prisoners. I was so scared I urinated on myself twice.

Why paste more?.. there is enough here to declare the Bush administration a criminal organisation.

- rob 2:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Okay if you don't want to vote against Bush even though he lies about why we go to war, has never seen an environmental law he didn't want dismantled, or is President solely so his friends can get rich, then vote against him because his administration is incompetent.

Diplomacy: Bush Seeks Help of Allies Barred From Iraq Deals

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 — President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon said it was excluding those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.

White House officials were fuming about the timing and the tone of the Pentagon's directive, even while conceding that they had approved the Pentagon policy of limiting contracts to 63 countries that have given the United States political or military aid in Iraq.

Many countries excluded from the list, including close allies like Canada, reacted angrily on Wednesday to the Pentagon action. They were incensed, in part, by the Pentagon's explanation in a memorandum that the restrictions were required "for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States."

The Russian defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, when asked about the Pentagon decision, responded by ruling out any debt write-off for Iraq.

The Canadian deputy prime minister, John Manley, suggested crisply that "it would be difficult" to add to the $190 million already given for reconstruction in Iraq.

White House officials said Mr. Bush and his aides had been surprised by both the timing and the blunt wording of the Pentagon's declaration. But they said the White House had signed off on the policy, after a committee of deputies from a number of departments and the National Security Council agreed that the most lucrative contracts must be reserved for political or military supporters. Emphasis Mine.

So many things wrong... where to start.

- rob 2:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Pentagon: Many of New Iraq Soldiers Quit

WASHINGTON - Plans to deploy the first battalion of Iraq's new army are in doubt because a third of the soldiers trained by the U.S.-led occupation authority have quit, defense officials said Wednesday.

Touted as a key to Iraq's future, the 700-man battalion lost some 250 men over recent weeks as they were preparing to begin operations this month, Pentagon officials said.

"We are aware that a third ... has apparently resigned and we are looking into that in order to ensure that we can recruit and retain high-quality people for a new Iraqi army," said Lt. Col. James Cassella, a Pentagon spokesman.

The battalion was highly celebrated when the newly retrained soldiers, marching to the beat of a U.S. Army band, completed a nine-week basic training course in early October. The graduates, including 65 officers, were to be the core "of an army that will defend its country and not oppress it," Iraq's American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said at the ceremony.

It was uncertain exactly why a third abandoned their new jobs, though some had complained that the starting salary — $60 a month for privates — was too low, officials said. The Chicago Tribune, which first reported the resignations, quoted officials in Baghdad as saying soldiers were angry after comparing their pay with the salaries of other forces. Iraqi police are paid $60 a month and the Civil Defense Corps $50, officials have said. Emphasis Mine.

Okay we can spare no expense when it comes to paying Halliburton to deliver gas, but we can't freaking pay the army that will replace our soldiers well enough? Incompetence will get us no where.

- rob 2:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Iraq to Stop Counting Civilian Dead

Why?

Because the number is high.

- rob 3:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Fark.com readers predict the headline on election day 2004

- rob 3:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

George Bush, Saudi Arabia's best President

Baker said, "I fixed the election in Florida for George Bush."

For the Bush administration, this marks a new low in their Conflicts-R-Us appointments process.

Or maybe there's no conflict at all. That is, if you see Jim Baker's new job as working not to protect a new Iraqi democracy but to protect the old theocracy of Saudi Arabia.

Iraq owes something on the order of $120 billion to $150 billion, depending on who's counting. And who's counting is very important.

Much of the so-called debt to Saudi Arabia was given to Saddam Hussein to fight a proxy war for the Saudis against their hated foe, the Shi'ia of Iran. And as disclosed by a former Saudi diplomat, the kingdom's sheiks handed about $7 billion to Saddam under the table in the 1980's to build an "Islamic bomb."

Should Iraqis today and those not yet born have to be put in a debtor's prison to pay off the secret payouts to Saddam?

James Wolfensohn says 'No!' Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, has never been on my Christmas card list, but in this case, he's got it right: Iraq should simply cancel $120 billion in debt.

Normally, the World Bank is in charge of post-war debt restructuring. That's why the official name of the World Bank is, "International Bank for Reconstruction and Development." This is the Bank's expertise. Bush has rushed Baker in to pre-empt the debt write-off the World Bank would have certainly promoted.
...

Why is our President so concerned with the wishes of Mr. Baker's clientele? What does Bush owe Baker? Let me count the ways, beginning with the 2000 election.

Just last week Baker said, "I fixed the election in Florida for George Bush." That was the substance of his remarks to an audience of Russian big wigs as reported to me by my somewhat astonished colleagues with BBC television.

It was Baker, as consiglieri to the Bush family, who came up with the strategy of maneuvering the 2000 Florida vote count into a Supreme Court packed with politicos.

Not feeling angry enough yet?... read the article.

- rob 2:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Ted Koppel decides that his reputation of thoughtful intelligent questions was passe

Kucinich said that to kick off the debate by talking about endorsements "trivializes the issues that are before us."

Koppel then voiced his apparent disdain for Kucinich, Sharpton and Braun, asking whether they would eventually "drop out" or continue a "vanity candidacy."

Again, Kucinich punched back. "I want the American people to see where the media takes politics in this country," he declared to loud applause. Koppel had become one of the debaters, and he had just taken a hard right to the jaw. The candidates, many of them, were in open revolt against the moderator.
...

Time columnist Joe Klein said he was disappointed that Koppel hadn't used more of his foreign-policy expertise. "Those kinds of questions about polling and money might have been appropriate in an election where nothing's really at stake," he said.

Koppel and ABC wanted controversy, and as the journalists and operatives poured out onto the snow-covered campus, it was clear they had gotten it, in spades.

Koppel, reached at dinner, dismissed the complaints. "Was anyone concerned that the past 25 debates were too interesting?" he asked. Emphasis mine.

The American media has become Nero... playing the fiddle as Bush gives America's wealth to his friends, and sacrifices ours sons for their quarterly reports.

- rob 2:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq

he United States government is paying the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show.

Halliburton, which has the exclusive United States contract to import fuel into Iraq, subcontracts the work to a Kuwaiti firm, government officials said. But Halliburton gets 26 cents a gallon for its overhead and fee, according to documents from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The cost of the imported fuel first came to public attention in October when two senior Democrats in Congress criticized Halliburton, the huge Houston-based oil-field services company, for "inflating gasoline prices at a great cost to American taxpayers." At the time, it was estimated that Halliburton was charging the United States government and Iraq's oil-for-food program an average of about $1.60 a gallon for fuel available for 71 cents wholesale.

But a breakdown of fuel costs, contained in Army Corps documents recently provided to Democratic Congressional investigators and shared with The New York Times, shows that Halliburton is charging $2.64 for a gallon of fuel it imports from Kuwait and $1.24 per gallon for fuel from Turkey.
...

The Iraqi state oil company and the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center import fuel from Kuwait for less than half of Halliburton's price, the records show.

- rob 1:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Bush Begins his Healthy Dirt Initiative

Administration eyes burying carbon dioxide

This summer, scientists began drilling deep into the earth of West Virginia. Their goal: to determine whether a spongy layer of rock 9,000 feet beneath the surface can hold a gas that causes global warming.

The project is being closely watched by the Bush administration, which is funding it, and by the power industry. Both see burying the gas, carbon dioxide, as a possible long-term solution to keeping gases from power plants out of the atmosphere.

Strangely enough that is also where they buried the minutes to Cheney's energy taskforce.

- rob 1:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Winning Hearts and Minds by building crappy schools

or

I don't mean to pick on Halliburton, Bechtel is also a disgusting greedy amoral war-profiteer

or

Supporting the bottom line of your favorite fund raising pals does not support our troops

Bechtel gets black marks on Iraqi school repairs

On its corporate Web site, under a page titled "A Fresh Start for Iraqi School Children," Bechtel Group showcases sparkling new classrooms filled with happy, young Iraqi students.

But the reality is far different, according to Army investigators.

"In almost every case, the paint jobs were done in a hurry, causing more damage to the appearance of the school than in terms of providing a finish that will protect the structure," a recent Army investigation into Bechtel's work found. "In one case, the paint job actually damaged critical lab equipment, making it unusable."

Bechtel is one of the biggest corporate winners of U.S. contracts to rebuild Iraq. Before the war ended, it received a $680 million contract to fix Iraq's electrical grids, water ports and more than 1,200 schools. In October, it won an additional $350 million contract to continue the electrical work.
...

According to Iraqi education officials, Bechtel budgeted about $20,000 per school for repairs. That budget may not seem like much compared to U.S. rates, but laborers here work for $2 to $7 a day. Bechtel subcontracted out the work to Iraqis for an undisclosed amount.

During repairs, "reports started coming in about poor quality," said 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion Maj. Linda Scharf, who was responsible for the schools in question, and who started fielding calls from concerned teachers and headmasters.

"So I asked one of my teams to go verify the rumors," Scharf said. "They took their digital camera, and the reality turned out to be worse than the rumors."

What they found: The subcontractors Bechtel hired left paint everywhere - on the floors, on desks, all over windows. The classrooms were filthy, the school's desks and chairs were thrown out into the playground and left, broken. Windows were left damaged, and bathrooms that were reportedly fixed were left in broken, unsanitary condition.

"Would you allow your child to use that bathroom? I wouldn't," Scharf said, pointing to a photograph of a stained, broken hole in a dirty, tiled stall.
...

For the soldiers who've been here since the war trying to build trust with the Iraqis, the work was insulting.

"Right now we are looking at a company who is representing the United States, doing poor work in Iraq and allowed to get away with it," Scharf said. "You see the kind of work we're leaving behind, and then of course the question comes up: Who is going to come back and fix all this?"

In response to the complaints, the Army looked into 20 of Bechtel's schools. In the Oct. 11 memo, it found that nine schools were left in "poor" condition, with no electricity or bathrooms at the start of the school year. Five were rated "fair" but still had hazardous construction material and needed minor repairs. Four were deemed "good," and two "outstanding," the report found.

- rob 4:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Grover Norquist and his terrorist friends

A Troubling Influence

- rob 4:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

The new America, by some strange twist of logic many now seem to feel that insulting or complaining about our President is somehow dishonoring our troops. I'm more of the feeling the Bush dishonors the troops when he lies to them and to America about what and why they are fighting in a foreign land. But anyway, as the free press of America no longer feels obiligated or able to report anything that might speak badly about the President in relation to his visit to Baghdad (well, not really a visit as much as a stop over and not really Baghdad as much as a cafeteria in a airport miles away), it is up to Stars and Stripes, believe it or not, to print up some more interesting aspects of that visit.

European and Pacific Stars & Stripes: Some troops not happy with historic visit

One soldier wrote to Stars and Stripes voicing displeasure that those under his command were told that during the president’s visit at the Baghdad International Airport for a quick meal and meet-and-greet, they weren’t allowed in.

“Imagine [my soldiers’] dismay when they walked 15 minutes to the Bob Hope Dining Facility, only to find that they were turned away from their evening meal because they were in the wrong unit,” wrote Sgt. Loren Russell in a letter to the editor, published Wednesday.

For security reasons, only those pre-selected got into the facility during Bush’s visit. Empahsis mine.

Okay, we have no problem giving our soldiers loaded weapons, but they have to be carefully screened to be in the same room as the president even without weapons?

Or was this just another attempt at shielding Bush from the danger of encountering a differing opinion. The bubble must be maintained.

- rob 4:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Tom the Dancing Bug!



The wind in DC these days is from Rove's constant spinning. The idiotic people with the glaced look are what were formally called "reporters" but now are pretty much "repeaters." I find this cartoon more accurate than most "news" these days. Sad.

- rob 12:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

George Bush has a new ad out:

GeorgeWBush.com :: When Angry Democrats Attack

See, Democrats are angry and say mean things. Bush is a miserable failure, but look: he shakes children's hands and likes the flag.

All is good in the bubble.

- rob 10:43 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

Friends in high places. Well not friends actually, but rather well paid employees in high places.

Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn

Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition.

The Houston-based company was controversially awarded a contract to repair Iraq's damaged oil infrastructure without competition in February.

The cost-plus contract means the amount spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is running the work, is open-ended, rather than being fixed at the outset, because the scope of the damage was unknown. The USACE described the contract as a 'bridge to competition', but original plans to award the work competitively in August have repeatedly slipped. So far, $1.7bn has been made available to Halliburton for the work.

Figures obtained from the USACE by Democrat Congressman Henry Waxman indicate that on 21 August, around the time the contract should have been opened to competition, the amount made available to KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary involved, was $704m. Since then the total has risen by $1.011bn.

Waxman said: 'Since August, when the follow-on contracts were supposed to be awarded, the administration has obligated more than $1bn to Halliburton under the oil infrastructure contract. These inexplicable delays may be good for Halliburton; they are costing taxpayers a bundle.'

The Iraqi War - Brought to you by Halliburton

Folks, a billion is a lot of money... let me put it to you this way: if I had a billion dollars, I'd be a billionaire. Wow.

- rob 10:05 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

Gore to Endorse Howard Dean for White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore will endorse Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean on Tuesday, political sources said, handing Dean a crucial political prize and solidifying his position at the front of the 2004 pack.

Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000 but lost the White House to President Bush after a bitter 36-day recount battle in Florida, will appear with the former Vermont governor at a morning event in Harlem in New York City, the sources said.

The pair will then travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a joint appearance later in the day before Dean returns to New Hampshire for a Democratic debate on Tuesday night.

The endorsement from Gore, who considered and rejected another White House run nearly a year ago, gives the insurgent Dean the backing of one of the party's most senior establishment figures and greater credibility in the face of charges that he is a product of the left-wing fringe.

- rob 10:01 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

"Gotta give the White House credit on this one. My colleagues and I are incredibly impressed by how well we were misled, and this was for a good cause. Just imagine if they were doing something they were ashamed of. We'd never find out. This just proves that we journalists shouldn't even try, which we don't." —Daily Show "White House correspondent" Stephen Colbert, on Bush's Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad

Thanks to the Hamster for writing that down. I saw that and wanted to post it, and then proceeded to forget...

- rob 3:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

BustBob.com :: Bust Bob Novak! -- Send the Letter

On July 14, 2003, "journalist" Robert Novak revealed the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame in print after speaking to a White House official. The agent's husband, former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, had publicly challenged President Bush's claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore from Africa -- exposing yet another misleading rationale for war.

While causing consternation among some CIA and Administration officials ("Clearly it was meant purely and simply for revenge," a senior Administration official said of the alleged leak. (Washington Post, 9/28/03)), it has not yet caused a change of conscience among the leaker -- or the man who endangered US national security assets by publishing the name, one Robert Novak.

We don't need to wait for John Ashcroft and George Bush to find the leaker who is on the loose. One man knows. And he should come clean. He is not a journalist. He is an ideologue. And most of all, he is a traitor.

- rob 3:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Mad Magazine - more accurate than any news channel

G. W. Bush: G. I. Joke Action Figure

• Bends over backwards for special intersts
  
• reaches for hand-outs from wealthy corporate campaing contributors
  
• Move and manipulate him just like big oil and the extreme right wing do!
  
• Because of G.I. Joke's spineless constructions, he easily bows to the will of Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld!
  
• G.I. Joke comes with an extra pair of blood-stained hands!

- rob 1:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Tonight at Ten:

More deaths in Iraq as our soldiers are told to walk aimlessly down the streets of Baghdad
New uniforms for servicemen to include Haliburton logo
Bush dined by CEOs, given million dollars in campaign funds and a big "thanks for the dough" statue
but enough of the small news, listen to this atrocity:
Kerry used bad bad dirty language when talking about our beloved President. More after this....

CURSING KERRY UNLEASHES
FOULMOUTHED ATTACK ON BUSH

- rob 1:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Maryland and buyer's remorse

In case you missed it in the Top Ten (below), here's an interesting little Diebold piece:

E-mail discusses gouging Maryland

ANNAPOLIS -- An e-mail found in a collection of files apparently stolen from Diebold Elections Systems' internal database recommends charging Maryland "out the yin-yang" should the state require Diebold to add paper printouts to the $73 million voting system it purchased.

The e-mail from "Ken," dated Jan. 3, 2003, discusses a (Baltimore) Sun article about a University of Maryland study of the Diebold system:

"There is an important point that seems to be missed by all these articles: they already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts."

"Ken" later clarifies that he meant "out the yin-yang," adding, "any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive."

How dare the citizens of Maryland desire to know their vote was correctly given to the person they voted for! They didn't get the contract, Diebold did! Let the silly sad citizens of Maryland vote for whoever they wanted, it doesn't matter. Diebold gets the contract, Diebold decides the vote.

Interesting to note, but most companies, when given the opportunity, love to expand an existing contract. Not Diebold, if Maryland wants to expand the contract by adding voter receipts, they want to price it out of possibility. So is Deibold in this for money... or something else? No, my tinfoil hat is not tight today, why?

- rob 1:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

After a week off:

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 137

4. The White House
It seems that a favorite hobby of this White House is making things up, and Bush's 150-minute tiptoe through Baghdad International Airport gave them the opportunity to do just that. According to the Washington Post, communications director Dan Bartlett described the intense secrecy surrounding the flight thusly: "Air Force One had come within sight of a British Airways flight over water. The British Airways pilot, Bartlett said, radioed to ask, 'Did I just see Air Force One?,' and, after a pause, the Air Force One pilot radioed back, 'Gulfstream 5.' After a long silence, Bartlett said, the British Airways pilot seemed to realize he was in on a secret and said, 'Oh.'" Isn't that an exciting story? Well it would be - if it had actually happened. The next day British Airways reported to Reuters that none of their aircraft had contacted Air Force One during its flight. So the White House had to change its story: apparently the British Airways aircraft didn't contact Air Force One, it contacted air traffic control in London. Case closed. Except... that didn't actually happen either - British Airways and Britain's National Air Traffic Services both denied this second version of events. So the White House revised its story again, this time claiming that "the aircraft inquiring about Air Force One was, in fact, 'a non-UK operator,'" and that "The presidential pilots thought the query 'was coming from a pilot with a British accent, and so that's why they had concluded that it was a British Airways plane.'" Okay. And why is this such a big deal? Well, during a recent White House press briefing, Scott McLellan was quick to explain: "what we always try to do for you all in the press corps is to provide you a little color of important events, because we believe that's helpful to you for your stories, and to do your reporting to the American people." So there you have it, folks - finally, official proof that they just make stuff up and try to pass it off as fact.

5. Ernest Gallet Elementary School
Hey kids, remember - it's good to tell lies. At least, that seems to be the conservative moral of Marcus McLaurin's story. Marcus - who is seven years old - got into trouble at school when another child asked him about his mother and father. Marcus explained that his mother is gay, and that gay means "when a girl likes a girl." Marcus wasn't lying - his mother is gay, she's divorced from Marcus's father and they live with her partner. But for telling the truth, he was scolded in front of his class, sent to the Principal's office, barred from recess, and ordered to attend "behavior clinic" where he was forced to write repeatedly, "I will never use the word 'gay' in school again." Congratulations, homophobic conservative wackos - you've outdone yourselves this time. But it gets even crazier - an assistant principal called Marcus's mother to explain that he was in trouble, and told her that Marcus had used "foul words" and that he "didn't feel comfortable" using them over the phone. I mean, for crying out loud, what's wrong with these people?!? I guess the new method of preaching family values to seven year olds is to ridicule them in front of the class, tell them that their parents are evil, and make them write a pledge to never, ever discuss their family in school. Compassionate conservatism strikes again.

- rob 1:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Subscribe to the TCS Feed

Having trouble with some of the poor English on this site?
Imagine what it looks like when translated by a machine:

Search TCS

Archive

Archive Index Page

What is this?

This is a "team" blog.  We are a bunch of Americans, whose rising distress in our leader's decisions brought us together to make this site.  As Bush said, he's a "uniter."  Many of us have never even met.
That's the internet for you.

This Century Sucks Store

Buy our cool stuff.
And tell everyone what you feel.  

We have a little Store you can visit.  

Our store's selection of items is constantly growing. Come see what we have.

 

We're also Amazon Associates, so if you want to buy something from Amazon, please search for it below, and we will get a few bucks from the sale.

Search Now:

Sites we often like:

Tin Foil Caps

The Free Speech Zone

The office of the independent blogger

Buzzflash

Tom The Dancing Bug

VerifiedVoting.org

Get Your War On

This Modern World

Eschaton / Atrios

Daily Kos

Contribute to America's Future

It is now more important then ever.

Donate to the Democractic Congressional Campaign Committee

Donate to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Some More Site Mottos

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response."
 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

More Sites we often like:

more coming...

"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.