Reenlistment rate for mid-grade soldiers dropped 12%

May 2, 2007
Reenlistment rate for mid-grade soldiers dropped 12%

The Army has seen the reenlistment rate of mid-grade enlisted soldiers drop 12 percentage points, from 96 percent during the first quarter of 2005 to a low of 84 percent for the first quarter of 2007, according to Pentagon data. As of March, the Army is as much as 10 percentage points behind where it was in retaining mid-grade soldiers at that time in 2005 and 2006. (The overall retention goal for mid-grade soldiers in fiscal year 2006 was about 25,000.)

Although Army officials say they will make their overall retention goals by the end of the fiscal year – in September – the decline means this will be the hardest year so far when it comes to keeping soldiers in uniform since the war in Iraq began.

How bad the problem is depends on whom you ask. To some, the trend is further proof that the war in Iraq has broken the back of the Army. Others believe it remains only an ominous warning light on the Army's collective dashboard but does not mean there is a crisis.

Justice probes hiring bias for Republicans

May 3, 2007
Justice probes hiring bias for Republicans

The Justice Department has launched an internal investigation into whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's former White House liaison illegally took party affiliation into account in hiring career federal prosecutors, officials said yesterday.

The allegations against Monica Goodling represent a potential violation of federal law and signal that a joint probe begun in March by the department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility has expanded beyond the controversial dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

In newly released statements, the two alleged that they were threatened by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty's chief of staff immediately before Gonzales testified in the Senate in January.

UK Genenal: Iraq War is Hopeless

May 3, 2007
UK Genenal: Iraq War is Hopeless

Gen Sir Michael Rose also told the BBC's Newsnight programme that the US and the UK must "admit defeat" and stop fighting "a hopeless war" in Iraq.

He told Newsnight: "As Lord Chatham said, when he was speaking on the British presence in North America, he said 'if I was an American, as I am an Englishman, as long as one Englishman remained on American native soil, I would never, never, never lay down my arms'.

"The Iraqi insurgents feel exactly the same way."

He said it was time to bring troops home.

Senior VA officials get big bonuses

May 3, 2007
Senior VA officials get big bonuses

WASHINGTON - Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.

The list of bonuses to senior career officials at the Veterans Affairs Department in 2006, obtained by The Associated Press, documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among those receiving payments were a deputy assistant secretary and several regional directors who crafted the VA's flawed budget for 2005 based on misleading accounting. They received performance payments up to $33,000 each, a figure equal to about 20 percent of their annual salaries.

Christian groups say hate crimes legislation will make it harder for them to hate gays

April 30, 2007
Christian groups say hate crimes legislation will make it harder for them to hate gays

Christian groups were sending out "action alerts" scaring supporters into believing that passage of the hate crimes bill, a piece of legislation that has clear First Amendment safeguards, would result in preachers arrested from the pulpit and Christians shipped off for an indefinite stay at the Hanoi Hilton.

In the words of Andrea Lafferty, executive director for the Traditional Values Coalition, "Most Christians might as well rip the pages which condemn homosexuality right out of their Bibles because this bill will make it illegal to publicly express the dictates of their religious beliefs." This was a fear that bared as much resemblance to fact as Dannielynn Smith does to Howard K. Stern.

Balancing budget now won't solve U.S. debt woes

April 30, 2007
Balancing budget now won't solve U.S. debt woes

Let's assume that all of Bush's projections were to come true and a surplus was realized in 2012. According to his playbook, the story either ends there or reverts to the old ploy of more tax cuts. But the story neglects one detail: The national debt. During the Bush years, the debt grew from $5.7 trillion to $8.8 trillion, a 54 percent increase. By the time Bush leaves office, it'll have grown past $10 trillion. In other words, Bush will have saddled the country with almost more debt than all previous presidents combined, including Ronald Reagan, the last champion of Republican fiscal discipline.

Bush built his economic promises on two lies: That tax cuts would "generate strong revenues to the Treasury" -- demonstrably false, considering the near doubling of the national debt. And that balancing the budget was the end game. Why, then, did his administration report last week once again that Medicare and Social Security are heading for bankruptcy by 2019 and 2041 respectively, even as the administration keeps badgering Congress to make permanent the tax cuts that amplified bankruptcy? Because the true end game is to use bankruptcy as a means of ending government programs socially beneficial to tens of millions while rigging the tax code to benefit the nation's wealth and dividend class -- its richest 1 percent and overwhelming profiteers of the Bush years.

Gen. Batiste: Withdraw from civil war

April 12, 2007
Gen. Batiste: Withdraw from civil war

"We still are playing a game of whack-a-mole," Batiste said. "It's the Myth of Sisyphus playing out over and over again… This country isn't mobilized. We don't have our heart into this… and the strategy is no more unified today than it was in March of 2003… It's time for this great country to accept the cold hard facts that we are right in the middle of an Iraqi civil war, and it is an absolute mess."

"Yes, I favor a draw-down," one of the administration's former "generals on the ground" said about congressional calls for a withdrawal of forces from Iraq… "We've got to pace ourselves and stop the Bush administration from driving us to a global culminating point.

"What we have is a failure in leadership," Batiste said today, as he had one year ago.

Has Bush Committed Impeachable Acts?

April 30, 2007
Has Bush Committed Impeachable Acts?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who served as the chief prosecutor of the major Nazi war criminals, called starting a war without cause the "supreme war crime" because all other war crimes flow from it.

Although the Bush administration uses the language of war, such as "War on Terrorism," it insisted that the prisoners captured in Afghanistan were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions because they did not wear uniforms. President Bush's attorney called the Geneva Conventions "quaint." However, the same administration claimed a right to detain these prisoners indefinitely without any kind of hearing on the grounds that prisoners of war can be detained without hearing until the war ends. President Bush uses the international law of warfare selectively, saying it applies when it suits his purposes but does not apply when it does not suit his purposes.

My conclusion: It is the political will to impeach, not the legal grounds, that we lack.

Ex-Republican aide guilty of election fraud

May 1, 2007
Ex-Republican aide guilty of election fraud

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The former executive director of the Allen County Republican Party pleaded guilty to election fraud charges, admitting he forged the signatures of 11 candidates on election forms.

Douglas T. Foy, 41, of Fort Wayne, faces three years of probation under terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty Monday in Allen Superior Court to 11 felony counts of forging the names of nine township advisory board and two trustee-assessor candidates last year.

The Allen County Election Board removed the candidates from the ballot on the grounds that the signatures were not legitimate, and the county GOP chairman fired Foy over his actions.

America's war on tourists

April 28, 2007
America's war on tourists

In a recent poll of international travellers, commissioned by Discover America Partnership, a coalition of US tourist organisations, 70 per cent of respondents said they feared US officials more than terrorists or criminals. Another 66 per cent worried they would be detained for some minor blunder, such as wrongly filling out an official form or being mistaken for a terrorist, while 55 per cent say officials are "rude."

Such fears are fuelled by the horror stories. Earlier this year a friend of mine was detained for hours and strip-searched at LAX for a minor visa infraction. He was finally allowed to enter the US, on the condition he departed the next day. "I won't be coming back," he said.

Administration Withdraws Pledge - will not seek warrents

April 30, 2007
Administration Withdraws Pledge - will not seek warrents

WASHINGTON, May 1 — Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.

Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.

As a result of the January agreement, the administration said that the National Security Agency's domestic spying program has been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved warrants for the wiretapping of American citizens and others inside the United States.

But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants.

Despair stalks Baghdad as plan falters

April 20, 2007
Despair stalks Baghdad as plan falters

The Sunni extremists held to be responsible for these attacks seem to be making a mockery of the US and Iraqi security plan, which is now into its third month.

So far, their surge seems to be having more effect than the American one.

Last month alone there were more than 100 car bombings, and the number of attacks has continued at a similar rate so far this month. This indicates a high level of organisation.

This despite the fact that there are many extra US and Iraqi troops in the city now. There are more raids and patrols.

GOP Congressman Pays $323,830 in Back Taxes and Fine

May 1, 2007
GOP Congressman Pays $323,830 in Back Taxes and $25,000 Fine

(AP) Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi avoided federal campaign penalties by paying $323,830 in back taxes last year to reassure regulators that loans to his political committee came from his own pocket.

The Federal Election Commission, in documents made public Tuesday, said it decided to take no further action against Renzi regarding the source of the loans to his 2001-2002 congressional campaign.

Renzi, a Republican, did agree to pay a $25,000 fine for unrelated reporting violations during that election cycle.

The congressman, who has been drawn into an FBI investigation of an Arizona land deal, completed a conciliation agreement with the FEC on Jan. 10, but it was only made public now.

Murtha: Impeachment is back on the table

April 30, 2007
Murtha: Impeachment is back on the table

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) revised the much publicized statements he made yesterday and told National Public Radio late on Monday afternoon that impeaching President George W. Bush was "on the table."

"I'm just saying that's one of the options that Congress has on the table, I'm getting more and more calls from the public about impeachment," the long-time Congressman, who is a veteran of the US Marines, told NPR's Melissa Block on the program All Things Considered.

Murtha's remark was at variance with Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who has insisted since prior to the Congressional election last year that returned a Democratic majority in the House that impeachment was "off the table."

Price tag for war in Iraq on track to top $500 billion

April 30, 2007
Price tag for war in Iraq on track to top $500 billion

WASHINGTON - The bitter fight over the latest Iraq spending bill has all but obscured a sobering fact: The war will soon cost more than $500 billion.

That's about ten times more than the Bush administration anticipated before the war started four years ago, and no one can predict how high the tab will go. The $124 billion spending bill that President Bush plans to veto this week includes about $78 billion for Iraq, with the rest earmarked for the war in Afghanistan, veterans' health care and other government programs.

Congressional Democrats and Bush agree that they cannot let their dispute over a withdrawal timetable block the latest cash installment for Iraq. Once that political fight is resolved, Congress can focus on the president's request for $116 billion more for the war in the fiscal year that starts on Sept. 1.

DO you mind if I don't trust the U.S. military establishment?

May 1, 2007
DO you mind if I don't trust the U.S. military establishment?

DO you mind if I don't trust the U.S. military establishment? I'm from a generation that was famous for not trusting what we used to call "the war machine."

I am appreciative of all the men and women who joined, or were drafted into, the armed forces. For whatever reason they served, personal or patriotic, they are to be honored. They are not the problem.

The problem lies with some in the military who stir the propaganda pot in hopes that Americans will blindly believe what they say. Well, there's never been a time when all Americans believed them and there never will be.

But the question of the hour is this:

Did the military really think it could transform Jessica Lynch into a Rambo-style hero simply by spinning her capture and subsequent release from an Iraqi hospital? And did the military really believe it could spin Pat Tillman's story and make him a hero killed in combat with the enemy rather than from friendly fire?

If they thought they could get by with lying in a feeble attempt to bolster the war machine, they were wrong. Lynch appeared before Congress earlier this week and told the truth in a well-reasoned statement that made me proud that she was a West Virginian.

Supreme Court won't hear Bush appeal allowing more pollution

April 30, 2007
Supreme Court won't hear Bush appeal allowing more pollution

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Bush administration appeal defending its rule that would allow older factories, refineries and coal-burning power plants to upgrade their facilities without installing the most modern pollution controls.

The justices declined to review a U.S. appeals court ruling in March 2006 that struck down the Environmental Protection Agency's rule for violating the federal Clean Air Act.

According to the rule that was adopted in 2003 but has never taken effect, modern antipollution controls would have to be installed only if plant upgrades cost more than 20 percent of the replacement cost of the plant.

Bush/Cheney Hit All Time Low. Reid, Pelosi and Congress Approval Drop

April 28, 2007
Bush/Cheney Hit All Time Low. Reid, Pelosi and Congress Approval Drop

President George W. Bush’s job performance is currentlyviewed positively by only 28 percent of U.S. adults, the lowest since he took office. Seven in ten adults view his job performance in a negative light, including almost half (48%) who say his job performance is poor. Since February,
the President has dropped from one-third (32%) who viewed his job positively and 67 percent who gave him negative marks.

Vice President Dick Cheney is also at his lowest job approval – just one-quarter of adults view him in a positive light while over two-thirds (68%) view his job performance negatively. This is down from February, which was his previous low, when 29 percent saw his job performance
positively and 67 percent saw it in a negative way.

82 Inmates Cleared but Still Held at Guantanamo

April 29, 2007
82 Inmates Cleared but Still Held at Guantanamo

LONDON -- More than a fifth of the approximately 385 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers.

Since February, the Pentagon has notified about 85 inmates or their attorneys that they are eligible to leave after being cleared by military review panels. But only a handful have gone home, including a Moroccan and an Afghan who were released Tuesday. Eighty-two remain at Guantanamo and face indefinite waits as U.S. officials struggle to figure out when and where to deport them, and under what conditions.

The delays illustrate how much harder it will be to empty the prison at Guantanamo than it was to fill it after it opened in January 2002 to detain fighters captured in Afghanistan and terrorism suspects captured overseas.

How do Congressional subpoenas work?

April 29, 2007
How do Congressional subpoenas work?

What happens when someone receives a congressional subpoena?
The subpoena will list when and where the person is expected to appear.

There are only a few options for appealing. Since 1975, federal courts have refused to invalidate congressional subpoenas, since such issues are considered "political questions" rather than judicial ones.

But there are two potential outs. An individual can invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In response, the committee could grant immunity to an individual, meaning the witness would not face charges for any criminal activities he admits to during testimony. The witness has to comply with the subpoena or face a contempt charge.

Taxation and Income: A Return to the 19th Century

April 26, 2007
Taxation and Income: A Return to the 19th Century

Consider a head-to-head comparison. We know what John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in Gilded Age America, made in 1894, because in 1895 he had to pay income taxes. (The next year, the Supreme Court declared the income tax unconstitutional.) His return declared an income of $1.25 million, almost 7,000 times the average per capita income in the United States at the time.

But that makes him a mere piker by modern standards. Last year, according to Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine, James Simons, a hedge fund manager, took home $1.7 billion, more than 38,000 times the average income. Two other hedge fund managers also made more than $1 billion, and the top 25 combined made $14 billion.

Israel seizes West Bank land for controversial barrier

April 28, 2007
Israel seizes West Bank land for controversial barrier

JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) - Israel is to confiscate 23 hectares (57 acres) of Palestinian farmland in the occupied West Bank for its controversial security barrier, according to a military order seen by AFP on Saturday.

The army on Friday told the village council in Bardaleh, north of the city of Jericho, that the land would be confiscated "for security reasons" in order to extend the barrier Israel says stops suicide bombers.

Those who own or use the land are invited to apply for compensation, said the order a copy of which was given to AFP by Bardaleh council.

Tenet: CIA warned of 'anarchy' in Iraq, Knew Powell was Lying About WMD

April 27, 2007
Tenet: CIA warned of 'anarchy' in Iraq, Knew Powell was Lying About WMD

For the first time, Tenet offers an account of his own view of a historic moment in the run-up to war: Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 speech before the United Nations, with Tenet sitting just behind him.

"That was about the last place I wanted to be," Tenet recalls. "It was a great presentation, but unfortunately the substance didn't hold up," he says of the performance, in which Powell charged Iraq had WMD stockpiles.

"One by one, the various pillars of the speech, particularly on Iraq's biological and chemical weapons programs, began to buckle," he writes. "The secretary of state was subsequently hung out to dry in front of the world, and our nation's credibility plummeted."

Inspectors Find Rebuilt Projects Crumbling in Iraq

April 29, 2007
Inspectors Find Rebuilt Projects Crumbling in Iraq

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly.

Rush Limbaugh Lie - US Timber Production

April 28, 2007
(link will take you to a PDF file from the US government)
Rush Limbaugh Lie - US Timber Production

During drive time this morning, I heard Rush Limbaugh say timber production declined 80% since the 1080's. Knowing this was probably wrong - that man always lies, I decided to look it up.

Maybe one of the reasons the media and so many republcians were so easily misled aobut WMD is because they're used to being lied to.

Reagan's NSA Adviser Rips George W. Bush Over Iraq War

April 28, 2007
Reagan's NSA Adviser Rips George W. Bush Over Iraq War

Lieutenant General William E. Odom I am not now nor have I ever been a Democrat or a Republican. Thus, I do not speak for the Democratic Party. I speak for myself, as a non-partisan retired military officer who is a former Director of the National Security Agency. I do so because Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, asked me.

In principle, I do not favor Congressional involvement in the execution of U.S. foreign and military policy. I have seen its perverse effects in many cases. The conflict in Iraq is different. Over the past couple of years, the President has let it proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued.