U.S. troops buy own gear for safety

March 6, 2008
U.S. troops buy own gear for safety

FORT BENNING, Ga. - Commando Military Supply on Victory Drive here is about as different from a musty Army surplus store as you can imagine.

More REI than M.A.S.H., Commando is regularly jam-packed with deploying grunts and sergeants, poking around for custom gear including $200 flashlights, $150 Oakley protective sunglasses, $180 Thinsulate boots, and $20 thermal socks.

"When you're comfortable and you know where all your gear is, it makes you a better fighter," says Lt. Tucker Knie, an Army Ranger perusing custom ammo pouches and techno-fiber socks. "You don't want to be rummaging around in your pocket during a firefight."

Vets Break Silence on War Crime

February 28, 2008
Vets Break Silence on War Crimes

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 28 (IPS) - U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are planning to descend on Washington from Mar. 13-16 to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in those countries.

"The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like."

Homeowner equity is lowest since 1945

March 6, 2008
Homeowner equity is lowest since 1945

NEW YORK - Americans' percentage of equity in their homes fell below 50 percent for the first time on record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.

Homeowners' portion of equity slipped to downwardly revised 49.6 percent in the second quarter of 2007, the central bank reported in its quarterly U.S. Flow of Funds Accounts, and declined further to 47.9 percent in the fourth quarter — the third straight quarter it was under 50 percent.

Iraq contractor skirts US taxes

March 6, 2008
Iraq contractor skirts US taxes

CAYMAN ISLANDS - Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.

More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands.

U.S. Mortgage Foreclosures Rise as Owners 'Give Up'

March 6, 2008
U.S. Mortgage Foreclosures Rise as Owners 'Give Up'

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. mortgage foreclosures rose to an all-time high at the end of 2007 as borrowers with adjustable-rate loans walked away from properties before their payments increased, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today.

New foreclosures jumped to 0.83 percent of all home loans in the fourth quarter from 0.54 percent a year earlier. Late payments rose to a 23-year high, the organization said in a report today.

U.S. Household Worth Is Declining

March 6, 2008
U.S. Household Worth Is Declining

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. household wealth fell in the fourth quarter for the first time in five years and borrowing slowed as home values plunged and lenders restricted credit, Federal Reserve figures show.

Net worth for households decreased by $532.9 billion from the previous three months, the first decline since the third quarter of 2002, according to the Fed's quarterly Flow of Funds report today. Housing-related net worth dropped by $176.4 billion.

Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney

March 5, 2008
Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

Catholics, others denounce McCain for courting Hagee

March 4, 2008
Catholics, others denounce McCain for courting Hagee

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Arizona Sen. John McCain may have imperiled his chances with one important religious constituency by appealing to another.

Democratic leaders and conservative Catholic groups alike have criticized the Republican presidential candidate for courting an endorsement from Texas evangelist John Hagee. The San Antonio-based pastor and media mogul backed McCain at a Feb. 27 news conference where the senator appeared.

Mukasey Denied Law School Honors Because of Stance on Torture

March 5, 2008
Mukasey Denied Law School Honors Because of Stance on Torture

Boston College Law School will not award its highest honor to US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey when he speaks at its May commencement, amid sharp criticism from students, faculty, and alumni over his invitation.

John Garvey, law school dean, announced the decision yesterday at a forum with graduating students held to discuss Mukasey's selection after weeks of intense debate on campus. Some alumni and students at the Jesuit school saw the move as a compromise to appease critics of Mukasey's controversial refusal to declare that an interrogation technique known as waterboarding constitutes torture.

Democrats Promise Budget Surplus

March 5, 2008
Democrats Promise Budget Surplus

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats rolled out a cautious election-year budget blueprint Wednesday that promises to put the federal budget back in the black while awarding greater-than-inflation increases to domestic programs.

But the Democratic budget plan, like a companion plan being unveiled later Wednesday in the Senate Budget Committee, produces sizable surpluses only by assuming that many of President Bush's tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010, as scheduled.

FBI wrongly used security letters

March 5, 2008
FBI wrongly used security letters

WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) -- A Justice Department report says the FBI abused the use of national security letters to get personal data on U.S. citizens, the FBI director said.

Testifying Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the inspector general will release the audit of the FBI's use of national security letters in 2006. The agency has been criticized for its use of the anti-terror investigatory tactic, which a federal judge has barred as unconstitutional.

Bank regulators: 'Asleep at the switch'

March 4, 2008
Bank regulators: 'Asleep at the switch'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Lawmakers grilled bank regulators Tuesday about why they didn't intervene as lax lending standards led to a meltdown in the mortgage market and a credit crunch that threaten the economy.

"Again and again the question has been asked over the past year as our credit markets have grown increasingly impaired: Where were the regulators?," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the banking committee. "Why didn't they do more? Were they asleep at the switch? And when the alarm went off, did they merely hit the snooze button?"

Iraq violence jumps in February - 633 Dead

March 1, 2008
Iraq violence jumps in February - 633 Dead

The number of Iraqis killed by violence rose in February for the first time in several months, official figures show.

At least 633 civilians died, according to data from several ministries - up from more than 460 deaths in January.

The increase was mainly due to two attacks in Baghdad and one near Karbala that killed at least 150 people.

Suit says HUD chief tied funds to favor

March 1, 2008
Suit says HUD chief tied funds to favor

PHILADELPHIA - A seemingly ho-hum rules dispute between Philadelphia's public housing agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has led to accusations of favoritism and corruption against a member of President Bush's Cabinet.

According to the city housing authority director, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has threatened the agency's funding since it refused to award a vacant lot worth $2 million to Kenny Gamble, a soul-music producer-turned-community developer.

In Parts of U.S., Foreclosures Top Sales

March 1, 2008
In Parts of U.S., Foreclosures Top Sales

Mortgage foreclosure notices are going out so fast that in some states the number of new foreclosure proceedings each month is greater than the number of homes sold that month.

The foreclosure problem appears to be greatest in the West, particularly in Nevada, where home prices soared in the housing boom and are now falling rapidly.

IRAQ: In Tatters Beneath a Surge of Claims

February 22, 2008
IRAQ: In Tatters Beneath a Surge of Claims

BAGHDAD, Feb 22 (IPS) - What the U.S. has been calling the success of a "surge", many Iraqis see as evidence of catastrophe. Where U.S. forces point to peace and calm, local Iraqis find an eerie silence.

And when U.S. forces speak of a reduction in violence, many Iraqis simply do not know what they are talking about.

Hundreds died in a series of explosions in Baghdad last month. This was despite the strongest ever security measures taken by the U.S. military, riding the "surge" in security forces and their activities.

ACLU: 900,000 Names on U.S. Terror Watch List

February 27, 2008
ACLU: 900,000 Names on U.S. Terror Watch List

The FBI now keeps a list of over 900,000 names belonging to known or suspected terrorists, the American Civil Liberties Union said today.

If that number is accurate, it would be an all-time high, exponentially more than the 100,000 names on the list several years ago. But the number needs to be taken with a grain of salt: after all, the ACLU doesn't keep the list, the FBI does, and the bureau doesn't generally like to talk about it. (Indeed, the FBI has not yet responded to a request for comment for this post.)

Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post

February 29, 2008
Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 29 (IPS) - Another high-ranking George W. Bush administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit Thursday amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organisation where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.

Cooper has been under fire for using his office to proselytise for evangelical Christianity ever since he appeared in a 2004 fundraising video for Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

Chamber of Commerce Supports Immunity for Telecoms

February 27, 2008
Chamber of Commerce Supports Immunity for Telecoms

Therefore, the Chamber urges the House to consider S. 2248 and pass this bipartisan compromise legislation. The Chamber firmly believes that the immunity provisions in S. 2248 are imperative to preserving the self-sustaining “public-private partnership” that both Congress and the Executive Branch have sought to protect the United States in the post-September 11 world. The Chamber encourages you consider the effects on the nation’s security should private sector involvement be muted and relegated to the sidelines in instances when industries can help the government protect this nation.

February 28, 2008
Senators shield MRAP whistle-blower

WASHINGTON — Two senators on Thursday warned Marine Corps Commandant James Conway not to retaliate against a civilian adviser whose internal study criticized delays by the military branch in procuring new armored vehicles.

Franz Gayl criticized the Marines in a Jan. 22 report for delaying the purchase of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles despite urgent requests from troops in the field. That report, first disclosed Feb. 15, said Conway was misled by Marine bureaucrats into providing "misleading" information about whether and when troops in Iraq made urgent requests for MRAPs in a letter to two senators last year.

Marines halt study critical of MRAP program

February 26, 2008
Marines halt study critical of MRAP program

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps has ordered a civilian scientist to stop work on a report critical of its efforts to obtain new armored vehicles, saying he exceeded his authority, a Marine official said Tuesday.

Franz Gayl, a retired Marine officer and civilian science adviser, alleged in a Jan. 22 report that "gross mismanagement" of the program to quickly field Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles had resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of Marines in Iraq. Gayl had planned to continue his investigation.

Nat Hentoff: Will Bush's Secrecy Continue?

February 26, 2008
Nat Hentoff: Will Bush's Secrecy Continue?

Restore accountability: Aftergood asks the candidates fighting for the Oval Office: "Will you disclose the full scope of Bush administration domestic-surveillance activities affecting American citizens, including all surveillance actions that were undertaken outside of the framework of law, as well as the legal opinions that were generated to justify them?"

On Feb. 12, Sen. John McCain voted for Bush's warrantless eavesdropping. Sen. Hillary Clinton said she would have opposed it. Sen. Barack Obama was against it.

White House official resigns after acknowledging plagiarism in newspaper columns

March 1, 2008
White House official resigns after acknowledging plagiarism in newspaper columns

WASHINGTON - A White House official who served as President Bush's middleman with conservatives and Christian groups resigned Friday after admitting to plagiarism. Twenty columns he wrote for an Indiana newspaper were determined to have material copied from other sources without attribution.

Timothy Goeglein, who has worked for Bush since 2001, acknowledged that he lifted material from a Dartmouth College publication and presented it as his own work in a column about education for The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne. The newspaper took a closer look at his other columns and found many more instances of plagiarism.

Mukasey Refuses to Prosecute Bush Aides

March 1, 2008
Mukasey Refuses to Prosecute Bush Aides

Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to refer the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers committed no crime.

As promised, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court.

"The House shall do so promptly," she said in a statement.

Record Opium Production in Afghanistan

March 1, 2008
Record Opium Production in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The Taliban have built a huge and profitable drug operation in Afghanistan while provincial governors look the other way, the latest grim sign of backsliding in a country the U.S. has spent six years and billions of dollars trying to salvage.

A report Friday on drugs — saying Afghanistan now produces 93 percent of the world's opium poppy — comes amid a resurgence of Taliban militants despite U.S. anti-insurgent efforts. Also on the rise: terrorist violence such as roadside bombs, suicide bombings, and attacks on police.

State Dept. orders another review of troubled Baghdad embassy

February 27, 2008
State Dept. orders another review of troubled Baghdad embassy

WASHINGTON — The State Department's new embassy construction chief has rejected his predecessor's certification that the $740 million new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is "substantially completed" and has instead begun a top-to-bottom review of the troubled project.

The official, Richard Shinnick, said in an interview the State Department hopes that the sprawling embassy complex — originally scheduled to be completed last September — will be ready by March 31.

USDA Shuts Down Congressional Audit

February 28, 2008
USDA Shuts Down Congressional Audit

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department abruptly ordered congressional auditors to leave its headquarters and told its employees not to cooperate with them.

"You are hereby instructed not to meet with any member of the (Government Accountability Office) today, or until this matter is resolved," Michael Watts, a top USDA attorney, wrote to employees Wednesday in an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.

The auditors were seeking information for an ongoing audit on Agriculture's office of civil rights and its handling of discrimination complaints. Specifically, they were investigating allegations that the department had previously provided false information for the audit.

IRS investigating denomination over Obama speech

February 27, 2008
IRS investigating denomination over Obama speech

NEW YORK — The IRS is investigating the United Church of Christ over a speech Sen. Barack Obama gave at its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president, the denomination said yesterday.

Obama, an Illinois Democrat, belongs to the 1.2 million-member Protestant group through his Chicago congregation.

In a letter the Cleveland-based denomination received Feb. 25, the IRS said "reasonable belief exists" that the circumstances surrounding the speech violated restrictions on political activity for tax-exempt organizations. The denomination has denied any wrongdoing.

Defense Budget Highest Since the End of WW2. AF seeks $18B more

February 29, 2008
Defense Budget Highest Since the End of WW2. AF seeks $18B more

WASHINGTON — Air Force officials believe they need $18 billion beyond their base budget next year to pay for critical programs, but members of Congress are concerned about the already hefty military price tag planned for coming years.

The fiscal 2009 budget proposal for the Air Force already tops $117 billion, a 7.9 percent increase from fiscal 2008. Earlier this month, Pentagon planners unveiled a $515 billion Defense budget for fiscal 2009, the highest since the end of World War II when adjusted for inflation.

Farms May Be Exempted From Emission Rules

February 26, 2008
Farms May Be Exempted From Emission Rules

Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat.

The EPA acknowledges that the emissions can pose a threat to people living and working nearby, but it says local emergency responders don't use the reports, making them unnecessary. But local air-quality agencies, environmental groups and lawmakers who oppose the rule change say the reports are one of the few tools rural communities have for holding large livestock operations accountable for the pollution they produce.

Obama Makes Gay Ad Buys in Ohio, Texas

February 28, 2008
Obama Makes Gay Ad Buys in Ohio, Texas

The Obama campaign is lavishing some of its cash advantage on LGBTs with targeted ad buys in Ohio and Texas leading up to the critical March 4 primaries in both states (Rhode Island and Vermont also vote that day). According to Obama LGBT steering committee member Eric Stern, the campaign has just completed an ad buy with queer newspapers in the four largest LGBT markets of those two states -- Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas, and Houston.

Full-page ads will appear starting this Friday in Outlook Weekly of Columbus, the Gay People's Chronicle of Cleveland, the Dallas Voice, and OutSmart, which is Houston-based. Buying a full-page four-color ad that appears one time typically costs anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 in weekly publications. In the Gay People's Chronicle, for instance, the ad cost about $850, according to the paper's advertising manager; the same ad went for about $1,500 in the Dallas Voice.

GOP Halts Effort to Retrieve White House E-Mail

February 27, 2008
GOP Halts Effort to Retrieve White House E-Mail

After promising last year to search its computers for tens of thousands of e-mails sent by White House officials, the Republican National Committee has informed a House committee that it no longer plans to retrieve the communications by restoring computer backup tapes, the panel's chairman said yesterday.

The move increases the likelihood that an untold number of RNC e-mails dealing with official White House business during the first term of the Bush administration -- including many sent or received by former presidential adviser Karl Rove -- will never be recovered, said House Democrats and public records advocates.

Marines ask DOD’s Inspector General to review MRAP allegations

February 27, 2008
Marines ask DOD’s Inspector General to review MRAP allegations

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps has asked the Defense Department Inspector General's Office to look into allegations that delays in fielding Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles cost troops' lives.

The allegations were made by Franz Gayl, a Corps civilian employee, who works in the Plans, Policies and Operations Department of Headquarters Marine Corps, who wrote in a Jan. 22 report that a 2005 request for MRAP vehicles for Marines in Iraq fell victim to the Corps' "Byzantine" procurement system.

February 14, 2008
Calif. pastor's Huckabee endorsement draws IRS probe

Under federal tax law, church officials can legally discuss politics, but they cannot endorse candidates or parties without risking their tax-exempt status. Most who do so receive a warning.

Drake, a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, said he received a 14-page letter from the IRS on Feb. 7.

On Aug. 11, Drake wrote a press release on letterhead from the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park that announced his personal endorsement of Huckabee and asked all Southern Baptists to get behind the candidate.