Official who lied about air safety in Manhattan after 9-11 gets $11 million contract

As President Bush’s health chief, Tommy Thompson was criticized for not doing enough to help workers exposed to toxic debris from the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center.

Now, a company he leads has won a $11 million contract to treat some of those workers who responded to New York’s ground zero. AP

G.M. Closing 4 Plants in Shift From Trucks Toward Cars

Problem: Managers asleep at the wheel when a change hits that should have been obvious for at least the last 5 years. Consumers respond in logical, predictable fashion.

Solution: Fire people working for said managers, close plants, blame the consumers.

Responding to a consumer shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles, General Motors said Tuesday that it would stop making pickup trucks and big S.U.V.s at four North American assembly plants and would consider selling its Hummer brand.

The moves, announced Tuesday by the company chairman, Rick Wagoner, will slash 500,000 units from the automaker’s overall production, and pave the way for increased investment in smaller cars and passenger vehicles. Within three years, he said, trucks will account for less than 40 percent of the vehicles that G.M. produces in North America, down from about half today.

Mr. Wagoner said that rising gasoline prices had forced a “structural shift” by American consumers away from truck-based vehicles built by G.M.

“These prices are changing consumer behavior and changing it rapidly,” Mr. Wagoner said in announcing the cuts before G.M.’s centennial shareholders meeting in Wilmington, Del. “We don’t believe it’s a spike or a temporary shift. We believe it is, by and large, permanent.” NY Times

Here in Germany people will probably like this though. Even more German/European cars to be sold to America.

Guess which country has world-record exports, while the other has the world´s biggest trade deficit?

Judge critical of Guantanamo war crimes case dismissed

A judge hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay who publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors’ refusal to give evidence to the defense has been dismissed, tribunal officials confirmed Friday. LA Times

Rice defends Bush policy on Iran as ’successful’, said same about Iraq in 2001

“‘I think this is called a successful multilateral coalition of states that have the same view’ that Iran should be rewarded for its cooperation or isolated for its defiance, Rice said.

She added: ‘I would like to see what other options there are for the international community, given that this policy is one that I think is the best course for us.’”AFP

This can only mean one thing: because everything is working, there needs to be war.

Why? Because she said the same about Iraq:

US postpones first Guantanamo war crimes trial

A military judge on Friday postponed the first war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, saying he wants to wait until the Supreme Court makes its highly anticipated ruling on the right of detainees to challenge their confinement in civil courts.

Navy Capt. Keith Allred ruled the trial for Osama bin Laden’s former driver should be delayed seven weeks, until July 21, in case the Supreme Court ruling affects his case. He scheduled pretrial hearings to begin a week earlier.

A Supreme Court ruling is expected by June 30.”AP

And of course it’s only a mere coincidence that after witnesses attested the timing of the trials was political in nature, they will now postponed and occur even closer to the US election in November. Mere coincidence, I tell you.

Bush vs World on Dollar

President Bush’s world:

President George W. Bush, under fire from Democrats who say he’s doing too little to help homeowners facing foreclosure, said he won’t be stampeded into “bad policy decisions” that might harm the economy.

“The market now is in the process of correcting itself, and delaying that correction would only prolong the problem,” he said today in his weekly radio address. “I believe the government can take sensible, focused action to help responsible homeowners weather this rough patch.”

Bush’s remarks echoed a speech yesterday, when he said the economy is going through a “tough time'’ and that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department will take “appropriate steps” to stabilize the financial system after a bailout of Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm.” Bloomberg)

The real world:

“Sao Paulo, Brazil - Antique store owners in lower Manhattan, ticket vendors at India’s Taj Mahal and Brazilian business executives heading to China all have one thing in common these days: They don’t want U.S. dollars.

Hit by a free fall with no end in sight, the once mighty U.S. dollar is no longer just crashing on currency markets and making life more expensive for American tourists and business people abroad; its clout is evaporating worldwide as foreign businesses and individuals turn to other currencies.

Experts say the bleak U.S. economic forecast means it will take years for the greenback to recover its value and prestige.

Negative dollar sentiment is growing in nations where the dollar was historically accepted as equal or better than local currency - and dollar aversion is even extending to some quarters in the United States.

At the Taj Mahal, dollars were always legal tender, alongside rupees, for entry into the palace. But because of the falling value of the dollar, the government implemented a rupees-only policy a month ago. Indian merchants catering to tourists have also turned bearish on the dollar.

‘Gone are the days when we used to run after dollars, holding onto them for rainy days,’ said Vijay Narain, a tour operator in the city of Agra where the Taj Mahal is located. ‘Now we prefer the euro. It gives us more riches.’

In Bolivia, billboards feature George Washington’s image on a $1 bill alongside a bright pink 500 euro note, encouraging savers to turn to the euro to tuck away money earned abroad or sent home in remittances.

If the dollar’s going down … save it in Euros!!!’ say the signs popping up around La Paz for Bolivia’s Banco Bisa.” AP)

Mental health crisis plagues New Orleans’ 12,000 homeless

Soon after 9/11 Republican scaremongers kept arguing for “tougher” terrorism laws because otherwise the US could actually “loose a major city.”

I imagine it would look something like this:

He was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as aggressive, homeless and schizophrenic. He was kicked out of a Salvation Army homeless shelter late last year for holding a fork to a fellow resident’s throat. On Jan. 4, Johnson was committed to a psychiatric facility for causing a disturbance at a bank. He was released and, a few weeks later, attacked New Orleans police Officer Nicola Cotton, 24, in a parking lot.

Johnson wrestled Cotton’s service handgun from her and shot her 15 times, killing the officer, police said. Johnson remains in jail without bond, charged with first-degree murder.

New Orleans health and law enforcement officials say more cases such as this could unfold if the city’s mental health crisis isn’t resolved soon. Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city 2½ years ago, the number of public mental health facilities and community outreach centers has decreased dramatically, leaving the mentally ill without medication and monitoring. (…)

Mental illness also is rampant among the city’s homeless, whose population has spiked since the storm from 6,200 to 12,000 today, says Sam Scaffidi of the New Orleans Police Homeless Assistance Unit. Under the Interstate 10 overpass at the corner of Claiborne Avenue and Canal Street downtown, homeless encampments have multiplied since Katrina into a sprawling colony of tents, soiled sleeping bags and cardboard caves.
USA Today

US cuts aid to poor nation due to soaring prices, biofuels

The U.S. government’s humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world’s poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.

USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year’s end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India. Washington Post

It probably doesn’t help that the Dollar keeps falling either.

Kremlin handpicked Medvedev ‘heading for clear win,’ Putin to ’serve’ as PM

Not exactly shocking:

Vladimir Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is set to win Russia’s presidential election by a wide margin, exit polls indicate.
Mr Medvedev, a first deputy PM, was the clear favourite from the start and enjoyed generous television coverage. (…)

Mr Putin has pledged to serve as Mr Medvedev’s prime minister. BBC

1% of Americans behind bars

The land of the Free.

For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs.

The report, released today by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.

Using updated state-by-state data, the report said 2,319,258 adults were held in U.S. prisons or jails at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults, and more than any other country in the world. AP

What’s worse, the prisons are so overcrowded that one has to be tough to walk out of it again. So prisons are responsible for releasing hardened criminals who are usually a bigger threat to society than they were before they went to prison. The “correctional” aspect of “correctional institution” never even enters into the equation as people are warehoused.

Millions of dollars are spent on such crime farms, yet any suggestions like maybe not sending people to prison for minor offenses (420), is brushed aside as not being “tough on crime.”

Well, way to be “tough on” society there.

White House says illegal phone wiretaps back on

Yo, America! You do know your President is forcing illegal actions onto large corporation to keep taps on your phones again, right?

The Bush administration said on Saturday U.S. telecommunications companies have agreed to cooperate “for the time being” with spy agencies’ wiretaps, despite an ongoing battle between the White House and Congress over new terrorism surveillance legislation.

The Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement saying wiretaps will resume under the current law “at least for now.”

“Although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so in light of the ongoing uncertainty and have indicated they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists,” the statement said. Reuters

This is beyond absurd: The phone companies are not sure they should do what the government tells them to, because what the government tells them to is unethical and illegal. It’s that simple.

Instead of talking about the issue in a calm and objective way, the Bush administration resorts to terrifying stories about how America will be attacked again if this is not allowed. They say that if wiretapping americans is not made legal retroactively America is “at risk,” even though it is the president who is “at risk” of being held responsible. And we all know how much he hates that.

And if an attack should occur, which would be on his watch (again), it would be the Democrats fault because it is their twisted little mind who can’t come to grips with the fact that the president has said it’s ok, so it is. What did they think this was? A democracy?

Yet even members of the GOP have stressed they had reservations about tapping the phones of their own constituents without legal reason or backing. Since Bush is the president, and head of their own party, they can be forced into submission.

This has nothing to do with Democrats, or for that matter anyone, wanting America to go up in flames. It has everything to do with everyone involved, except the Bush administration, wanting to protect what America is. (or should I say was?) A country of the free, where laws are there to protect you.

The UK non-apology for rendition flights

This is widely heralded as a British MP apologizing for extraordinary rendition:

The Foreign Secretary apologised to MPs today after it emerged that two American “rendition flights” of CIA detainees had landed on British soil, contradicting previous statements from the Government.

David Miliband told the House of Commons that he had now been informed by the US Government that the controversial flights – one en route to Guantanamo Bay and one to Morocco – stopped over at Diego Garcia, the British overseas territory in the Indian Ocean.

He said the US had just alerted the Government to the incidents, explaining the oversight due to “record errors” and was “very sorry indeed” that previous information given by ministers to the Commons had been incorrect. Times

It’s not. He is apologizing for getting information wrong. He is not apologizing for the flights.

That is a huge difference.

US inflation continues to rise

Bush gave the world freedom, now he keeps giving us wealth:

Inflation rose more than expected last month, the government reported on Wednesday, adding to worries about the economy and sending a reminder to central bankers that rising prices remain a threat.

Meanwhile, the housing crisis continued to take a toll on residential home construction. Groundbreakings for homes rose slightly but remained near their lowest levels since the early 1990s, and permits for new home projects fell again.

The inflation report raised concerns among some investors that the Federal Reserve will back away from cutting interest rates again at its next meeting, on March 18, and stocks declined at the opening bell. NY Times

I had a condo in Florida and the rest of my money in Apple stock. Looks like I sold both just in time. (Apple will rebound, Florida, probably not so much.)

Election outcome in Pakistan offers best chance for reform in years

The party of Pakistan’s late former PM Benazir Bhutto - the biggest winner in Monday’s election - says it is ready to form a coalition with the PML-N party. BBC

If this goes through it could single handedly reform Pakistan from a dictatorship to a more or less functioning democracy.

Just wait for Bush to herald this as one of his triumphs even though it has absolutely nothing to do with him. On the contrary, Bush kept backing Musharraf, even though it was crystal clear he is a dictator who imposed marshal law in an over-reaching power grab and largely ignored al-Quaida operatives within Pakistan’s borders.

CIA unsuccessfully went ‘free market’ after 9/11 as a cover

The LA Times reported this over the weekend but I didn’t see it until now:

The CIA set up a network of front companies in Europe and elsewhere after the Sept. 11 attacks as part of a constellation of “black stations” for a new generation of spies, according to current and former agency officials.

But after spending hundreds of millions of dollars setting up as many as 12 of the companies, the agency shut down all but two after concluding they were ill-conceived and poorly positioned for gathering intelligence on the CIA’s principal targets: terrorist groups and unconventional weapons proliferation networks.
 
The closures were a blow to two of the CIA’s most pressing priorities after the 2001 terrorist attacks: expanding its overseas presence and changing the way it deploys spies.

The companies were the centerpiece of an ambitious plan to increase the number of case officers sent overseas under what is known as “nonofficial cover,” meaning they would pose as employees of investment banks, consulting firms or other fictitious enterprises with no apparent ties to the U.S. government.

But the plan became the source of significant dispute within the agency and was plagued with problems, officials said. The bogus companies were located far from Muslim enclaves in Europe and other targets. Their size raised concerns that one mistake would blow the cover of many agents. And because business travelers don’t ordinarily come into contact with Al Qaeda or other high-priority adversaries, officials said, the cover didn’t work. (…) LA Times

Financial Times: US consumer confidence at 16 year low

US consumer confidence dropped to a 16-year low this month, a level that has historically signalled recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell 11 per cent for early February to 69.6, compared with the previous month - the lowest level since February 1992. Financial Times

DoJ official: waterboarding ‘not legal,’ meanwhile McCain votes against ban

“There has been no determination by the Justice Department that the use of waterboarding, under any circumstances, would be lawful under current law,” he said.

It is the first time the department has expressed such an opinion publicly. Guardian

The timing of this admission is outright hilarious. The Bush administration is finally coming around to admitting they shouldn’t have waterboarded people because it always has been, and always will be torture. If they had admitted that a few years ago, the international backlash probably wouldn’t have been so bad. (Or simply: DON’T TORTURE. Seems to be easy enough of a rule to remember.)

Apparently the de-facto Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain didn’t get the talking points memo though as he voted against banning waterboarding last night:

A controversial measure barring the CIA from using torture cleared the Senate late yesterday, despite opposition from Republican presidential front-runner Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Senate Democrats picked up the support of moderate Republicans, some of whom face tough re-election battles this year, to pass the conference report accompanying the annual intelligence authorization bill on a 51-45 vote. National Journal

Of course he was for the bill before he voted against it. Now where did I hear that before?

US internet provider slows download of video, music files

There’s been much talk of how important “net neutrality” is. Apparently the matter is even more pressing:

Comcast said yesterday that it purposely slows down some traffic on its network, including some music and movie downloads, an admission that sparked more controversy in the debate over how much control network operators should have over the Internet.

In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast said such measures — which can slow the transfer of music or video between subscribers sharing files, for example — are necessary to ensure better flow of traffic over its network. WaPo

Bush administration compares 9/11 trials to Nuremberg, death penalty for Nazi war criminals

Via AP, we get this chestnut:

The Bush administration is telling American diplomats to defend the decision to seek death for six Guantanamo Bay detainees accused in the Sept. 11 terror attacks by recalling the executions of Nazi war criminals.

A State Department cable sent to U.S. embassies abroad and obtained by The Associated Press says that capital punishment is an internationally accepted sentence for those convicted of serious war crimes. As proof, the cable notes that some of Adolf Hitler’s most senior aides were executed after being condemned to die at the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and 1946.

The unclassified cable was sent in anticipation of questions from foreign governments about the legality of the trial and charges that were announced on Monday by the Pentagon. AP

Simply wow.

Death penalty for 6 Guantánamo inmates sought - because of Geneva Convention

The US has repeatedly argued the inmates in Guantanamo are not covered by the protections of the Geneva Convention as they are no military fighters in the classic sense. The US denotes them as “enemy combatants.”

But now there is this:

Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantánamo detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government officials who have been briefed on the charges said Sunday.

The officials said the charges would be announced at the Pentagon as soon as Monday and were likely to include numerous war-crime charges against the six men, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former Qaeda operations chief who has described himself as the mastermind of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. (…) NY Times

Interesting. So what exactly is a war crime then? Let’s turn to the US Code on that one:

§ 2441. War crimes

(c) Definition.— As used in this section the term “war crime” means any conduct—
(1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party of,

US Code, TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 118, §2441, War crimes

To sum it up: They are there because the Geneva Convention does not apply to them. Now they must die, because they broke the Geneva Convention.

Bush to tornado victims ‘Life is unfair,’ trust in God

President Bush had this to say to survivors of the tornadoes that killed 50+ people and caused even more to lose their homes:

We’re sorry you’re going through what you’re going through.

You know, life sometimes is, uh, you know, is unfair, and you don’t get to play the hand that you wanted to play. But, the question is, when you get dealt the hand, how do you play it?

And I’ve come away with this impression of the folks of Macon County. One, you’re down-to-Earth, good, hard-workin’ people. They have a respect for the Almighty, and this community’s going to be as strong as ever. That’s what I think.
White House

Bush had similar things to say to survivors of tornadoes in Florida last year and it still makes my blood boil.

He shows up at a scene where hundreds, if not thousands of homes have been largely wiped out and entire communities are extensively damaged, if not virtually destroyed. He holds a photo op and tells them if they believe hard enough in God, they will rebuild their homes.

Right. So what do we need a president for then? And more importantly, why do we need to fly a president to these locations, diverting attention, possibly even funding away from people who need help only for him to hand over responsibility to God? Is that what the division between church and state means? First the President shows up, then God takes care of the chaos?

But what’s the most asinine about this is this: The people there believe him. And because he implies they will only fail if they don’t believe strong enough, asking for help would also acknowledge their faith isn’t strong enough. So they don’t accept help even though they definitely need it.

Boy, am I glad we have a President with such a ‘can do’ attitude on the job. just fly him somewhere. he’ll point at something and tell you to believe in God. Voilá, problem solved!

CIA Likely Let Contractors Perform Waterboarding

Freedom. As in “free” market economy:

The CIA’s secret interrogation program has made extensive use of outside contractors, whose role likely included the waterboarding of terrorist suspects, according to testimony yesterday from the CIA director and two other people familiar with the program.

Many of the contractors involved aren’t large corporate entities but rather individuals who are often former agency or military officers. However, large corporations also are involved, current and former officials said. Their identities couldn’t be learned. Wall Street Journal

Arrest this polar bear!

I’ve seen a fair number of Greenpeace “protests” that may have achieved the short term goal Greenpeace was gunning for, but has made environmentalists look incredibly bad in the process. The aftermath information released after Greenpeace successfully stopped the oil platform Brent Spar to be dumbed in the Atlantic, comes to mind. (wiki link)

This, on the other hand, is awesome:

Critic of Putin sent to mental hospital

Putin’s Russia:

An anti-Kremlin activist is being held in a mental hospital in what supporters say is a return to a Soviet-era punishment of dissidents.

Roman Nikolaichik, a parliamentary candidate for The Other Russia, the chess champion Garry Kasparov’s anti-Putin coalition, was sent to a psychiatric hospital after police questioned him about his political activities.

Mr Nikolaichik, 27, a lawyer, was detained in Tver, 100 miles (160km) north of Moscow, where he is head of the coalition’s local branch. He is also a member of Ares, a monarchist movement in Russia.

Yevgeny Svetovidov, a spokesman for Ares, said that Mr Nikolaichik was a victim of “punitive psychiatry” after being summoned for questioning by local prosecutors on Friday. He said that they tried initially to fabricate a charge of attempted murder against the activist, then called a doctor who certified him as mentally unstable.(…)
London Times