I promised myself I WILL get this Reading List out. Every time I started it new developments stole the show. Or, like many of you, I wondered whether we could achieve anything, anyway.
To quote from Buzzflash: "Frankly, the perfidy of the Busheviks has finally rendered us speechless -- for the moment, anyway. It's like the whole administration is on LSD. What else can explain such an unrestrained combination of treachery, lunacy and lying?" I must confess that I have been depressed ever since the ports story broke. Surely, if people do not bombard their Representatives and Senators over this, we deserve to go on being treated like a third world country under military rule. A third world country sells its resources instead of engaging in manufacturing and industry. Well, the Bush administration is busily selling off our wilderness areas and other land owned by all of US. And many of our power plants are already foreign owned. Not to mention all of the debt that Bush has run up and is held by foreign countries. The part that gets me the most is that the port agreement, unlike other agreements normally made with foreign countries, does not require the UAE to keep records stored on our soil and have an American manager. And at the same time this scandal is going on, MY country is prosecuting a nurse for SEDITION (!) because she criticized Bush and his administration when WE ARE NOT AT WAR ! ! ! Put alongside that, the fact that Bush has done something which is so dangerous that it is hard to believe it is not part of some world-takeover plot that he and the NeoCons are hatching. Not to mention the Carlyle group, an investment company that has as members the Saudis (yes, the parents of bin Laden) and the Bush family. Look, folks. This country is being sold off to multi-national corporations which have no loyalty to any country. How can Bush and the NeoCons hate this country so much? I hope Bush 41 is not as involved as it looks, as I got badly upset with him over just one thing, and I was wrong about that. And if we really wanted to get Saddam Hussein, wouldn't it have been easier for us to have just invited him over for a hunting trip with a vice-presidential party than invade the country and kill thousands and thousands and thousands? Cheaper, too. Well, I am trying to kick the depression, but I still wonder whether we should start learning Arabic. :-( The dirty little secret behind the UAE port security flap by David Sirota Sirotablog -- "Real-world wisdom from outside the beltway" Working for Change February 21, 2006 Politicians and the media are loudly decrying the Bush administration's proposal to turn over port security to a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - a country with ties to terrorists. They are talking tough about national security - but almost no one is talking about what may have fueled the administration's decision to push forward with this deal: the desire to move forward Big Money's "free" trade agenda. How much does "free" trade have to do with this? How about a lot. The Bush administration is in the middle of a two-year push to ink a corporate-backed "free" trade accord with the UAE. At the end of 2004, in fact, it was Bush Trade Representative Robert Zoellick who proudly boasted of his trip to the UAE to begin negotiating the trade accord. Rejecting this port security deal might have set back that trade pact. Accepting the port security deal - regardless of the security consequences - likely greases the wheels for the pact. That's probably why instead of backing off the deal, President Bush - supposedly Mr. Tough on National Secuirty - took the extraordinary step of threatening to use the first veto of his entire presidency to protect the UAE's interests. Because he knows protecting those interetsts - regardless of the security implications for America - is integral to the "free" trade agenda all of his corporate supporters are demanding. The Inter Press Service highlights exactly what's at stake, quoting a conservative activists who admits that this is all about trade: "The United States' trade relationship with the UAE is the third largest in the Middle East, after Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two nations are engaged in bilateral free talks that would liberalise trade between the two countries and would, in theory at least, allow companies to own and operate businesses in both nations. 'There are legitimate security questions to be asked but it would be a mistake and really an insult to one of our leading trading partners in that region to reject this commercial transaction out of hand,' said Daniel T. Griswold, who directs the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank." [emphasis added] [...] Read the rest at the workingforchange blog: http://tinyurl.com/jpcau Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs' By Nat Parry February 21, 2006 Consortium News Not that George W. Bush needs much encouragement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a new target for the administration's domestic operations -- Fifth Columnists, supposedly disloyal Americans who sympathize and collaborate with the enemy. "The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements," Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6. "I stand by this President's ability, inherent to being Commander in Chief, to find out about Fifth Column movements, and I don't think you need a warrant to do that," Graham added, volunteering to work with the administration to draft guidelines for how best to neutralize this alleged threat. "Senator," a smiling Gonzales responded, "the President already said we'd be happy to listen to your ideas." [...] Detention Centers Plus, there was that curious development in January when the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root a $385 million contract to construct detention centers somewhere in the United States, to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs," KBR said. [Market Watch, Jan. 26, 2006] [...] Labor Camps There also was another little-noticed item posted at the U.S. Army Web site, about the Pentagon's Civilian Inmate Labor Program. This program "provides Army policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations." [...] There is much, much, more in this article: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/022106a.html Also in TruthOut http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022306C.shtml Dubai company set to run U.S. ports has ties to administration BY MICHAEL MCAULIFF New York Daily News Posted on Tue, Feb. 21, 2006 WASHINGTON - The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House. One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port. Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet. The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and who was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. The ties raised more concerns about the decision to give port control to a company owned by a nation linked to the Sept. 11 hijackers. "The more you look at this deal, the more the deal is called into question," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who said the deal was rubber-stamped in advance - even before DP World formally agreed to buy London's P&O port company. [...] Read the rest at Mercury News: http://tinyurl.com/nzrws Looking at President Bush, Seeing an 'Impostor' by Terry Gross npr Politics & Society February 22, 2006 Despite what his supporters say, President Bush has far more in common with Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan. That's the idea put forth in conservative economist Bruce Bartlett's new book, Impostor. The book, subtitled "How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," looks at the president from the point of view of a former Reagan White House official. Calling President Bush an opportunist who lacks a set of political principles like those that guided Reagan, Bartlett worries that the country -- and conservatives in particular -- are being hurt by the president's mistakes. He faults Bush for increasing federal spending -- with programs like the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill -- while also cutting taxes. [...] Read more about what this former Reagan White House official has to say on npr: http://tinyurl.com/kyq98 Civil War in Iraq: Murtha Told Us So Arianna Huffington Huffington Post February 23, 2006 I was originally going to title this post "Jack Murtha's Crystal Ball." After all, he's been saying for weeks that "Iraq is not about terrorism; it's about civil war" -- and the bloody events of the last two days have proven his assessment all too true. But Murtha isn't a soothsayer He's a truthteller. He wasn't reading the political tea leaves, he was reading the facts on the ground (and listening to what his wide range of military sources were telling him). He was willing to see the inevitable -- unlike far too many of his fellow Democrats who continue to be blinded by the fear of not appearing strong on defense, and unlike President Bush who continues to be blinded by his fanatical belief that we're bringing democracy to Iraq. True, it's Fanatical Belief 4.0, since the earlier versions didn't pan out, but it's a fanatical belief nonetheless. Mark Twain said: "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so." This describes Bush to a T. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he knows for sure that we're bringing democracy to Iraq. [...] Read the rest of this column at the Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/r848h The first time I heard of the port scandal was on February 15, just before the "under the wire" story began to make it above the wire. Thanks to the person who sent it to me; I bet he helped bring the story above the wire. UAE Co. Poised to Oversee Six U.S. Ports Saturday February 11, 9:41 am ET By Ted Bridis, Associated Press Writer Company From United Arab Emirates Poised to Oversee Six American Ports Due to Sale WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism. The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry. [...] Read the rest at Yahoo Financial News http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060211/ports_security.html?.v=2 or the Las Vegas Sun Business News http://tinyurl.com/ea7r6 You may enjoy this bit about Yahoo. This is the company who has done everything the WhiteHouse ever wanted in order to spy on all of us. Yahoo Mail Lifts Ban on Allah in Usernames By Michael Santo Contributing Writer, RealTechNews February 22, 2006 Interestingly, this particular issue was brought to the forefront not by someone wanting to register allah as a username, but by someone who had allah as a substring in their name. And I never even heard of this before today. Linda Callahan has since converted to Gmail after not being able to register a username with her last name. Her son, Ed Callahan said "She was disgusted by (Yahoo's policy) and saddened. It was discriminatory. They disallowed 'allah' but allowed 'jesus' and 'god,' and I don't think there is a rational explanation for that." [...] To read what Yahoo has to say, go to: http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2729 A post-9/11 problem for Democrats By Joan Vennochi | February 12, 2006 The Boston Globe PRESIDENT BUSH again pushed his magic 9/11 button -- the one designed to panic the country and paralyze the Democrats. Having survived ludicrous color-coded terror alerts and intermittent videograms from Osama bin Laden, the country is growing too jaded to panic. But Bush is still batting .500. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to paralyze Democrats, who can't get beyond ''no" as their official national security policy. The Democrats' paralysis began immediately after 9/11. Spurred by patriotism, a desire to look nonpartisan and a fear of looking weak on terror, they bought into the Bush response. They endorsed the USA Patriot Act and authorized Bush to invade Iraq. Now, moving beyond the much-maligned neo-con strategy to their own national security vision is proving to be difficult. [...] Read it all at http://tinyurl.com/axale Here is a good article about Cheney's Chappaquiddick II on the Huffington Post: Cheney's Chappaquiddick II: The Real Story Emerges R.J. Eskow Huffington Post February 15, 2006 The real story is already emerging, if you're willing to do a little digging. Cheney and Whittington went hunting with two women (not their wives), there was some drinking, and Whittington wound up shot. Armstrong didn't see the incident but claimed she had, Cheney refused to be questioned by the Sheriff until the next morning, and a born-again evangelical physician has been downplaying Whittington's injuries since they occurrred. Neither the press nor law enforcement seems inclined to investigate. Before the right-wing commenters howl - there's documentation for all of these statements. Let's take them one by one: In addition to Cheney and Whittington, the hunting party included Katherine Armstrong (who was in the car at the time of the shooting: more on that later). After lots of evasive comments that only referred to a "third hunter," we now know her identity: Pamela Willeford, the US Ambassador to Switzerland. Then there was this Armstrong quote on MSNBC and picked up by Firedoglake (later dutifully scrubbed, but preserved on Google cache): "There may be a beer or two in there," (Armstrong) said, 'but remember not everyone in the party was shooting.'" [...] Read the whole thing, and wonder how the Republicans can go on attacking Ted Kennedy like they have for the past 40 years. http://tinyurl.com/7sclb I think Bush ought to try to restore democracy in the USA! CNN.com POLITICS Rice: $75 million sought to spur democracy in Iran Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Posted: 11:44 a.m. EST (16:44 GMT) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush wants $75 million to try to spur democracy in its adversary Iran, expanding a program that skeptics say can have little effect in the Islamic republic. "The United States will actively confront the aggressive policies of the Iranian regime. At the same time, we will work to support the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom and democracy in their country," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a congressional budget hearing. Rice said the funds would be used to broadcast U.S. radio and television programs into Iran and pay for Iranians to study in America. She requested the money in a supplemental budget request for fiscal year 2006. Congress has already approved $10 million for such programs for the year, which begins October 1. [...] Read it all at CNN.com: http://tinyurl.com/83gme I personally thought we should go after the Taliban in Afghanistan because of their horrible treatment of women -- but for some reason Bush gave up on bin Laden and went to Iraq, unwisely in my view. Now look at what is happening with the Taliban: Al Qaeda establish 'Islamic state' in Pak province Sunday, February 12, 2006 02:35:43 pmPTI The Times of India NEW DELHI: After taking "virtual control" of the entire North Waziristan province of Pakistan, Taliban and Al Qaeda have recently "declared" the establishment of an 'Islamic State' in the area and gained a major base for their operations against the US-led forces in Afghanistan, media reports said. "The Taliban recently declared the establishment of an 'Islamic State' in North Waziristan, and they now, through the brutal elimination of criminal elements who previously held sway, in effect rule in the rugged territory," a latest report in 'Asia Times' magazine said. It said that by "taking control of virtually all of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, the Taliban have gained a significant base from which to wage their resistance against US-led forces in Afghanistan. This article is from Times of India: http://tinyurl.com/j92ke I don't fully understand it, but an effort is being made to make the photos of torture in Iraq available. If I understand it, they are on this web site. http://dahrjamailiraq.com/ Please forgive me for not verifying this myself; I cannot stand it. In my America, torture is wrong. Defending Progressive Values why we need to chart a new course by Charles Sullivan Oped News January 12, 2006 Make no bones about it-I am a bona fide dyed in the wool progressive. I make no apologies. I am proud to be a progressive. It was progressives, not the party of big business that gave us social security, Medicare and unemployment insurance. It was progressives who championed virtually every increase in the minimum wage. It is progressives who are fighting for a living wage law. We must stop allowing neo-conservatives to define who we are. Progressives know who we are and what we stand for. If we are not overtly proud of the contributions of progressives to society we are not worthy of the name. What has the party of big business ever done for working class people? They are the party that brought us the eighty-four hour work week; the twelve hour work day, sweat shops and child labor. They are not only the party that opposed civil rights; they are the party of choice of white supremacists everywhere. They are the party of class privilege. Let us remember that they are the party that produced the likes of Strom Thurman, Jesse Helms and Tom Delay. They have a lot to answer for. [...] Read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/o8tcn Judge orders U.S. to release Guantanamo detainee data USA TODAY Posted 2/23/2006 8:45 PM SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Thursday to release the identities of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press, a move which would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned there. Some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terror being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been held as long as four years. Only a handful have been officially identified. [...] I hate it when we do not set a good example to the world. http://tinyurl.com/lgcfw Dubai Harbored Hijackers? Big Deal, Bush Says: Margaret Carlson by Margaret Carlson , who was a columnist and deputy Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own. Bloomberg.com February 23, 2006 Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- I wonder what the president feels like these days as 9/11, the default card used to start wars and squelch dissent, is being played against him? Letting a United Arab Emirates company take over six major American ports, including New York, may not be as insane as it looks. Ports are globalized, and next to, say, Iran, Dubai looks tolerable. But it will never look wise for the president to be so inattentive that he didn't know about the takeover beforehand, or stop it for further reflection once he did. George W. Bush believes in delegating, and delegate he did, to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a multiagency body created in 1975 to assess the security risks when foreigners want to invest in this country. The commission has turned down one deal out of 1,500. [...] But the decision alarmed just about everyone else, including Bush's most loyal lieutenants. Bush has always boasted that his steely judgment is what we want in a crisis, even though it failed him when confronted with an intelligence report headed, ``Osama bin Laden Promises to Strike Inside U.S.'' [...] Read it all at http://tinyurl.com/hlgrf Public Citizen is having a "National Call Out Corruption Day" on February 28. To read about it go to http://www.cleanupwashington.org/ An Illinois congressional race made it to The Nation. Christine Cegelis, who ran a great race against Henry Hyde and is credited for his retirement, has had another candidate pushed into the race by the national Democrats working with the congressional races. See: Go Christine! Katha Pollitt BLOG | Posted 02/22/2006 @ 5:55pm The Nation I was never wild about the Band of Brothers idea, as Ari notes, and not just because it is such a male (and white) bunch of tired and dreary no-idea candidates. It's a gimmick. A militaristic gimmick. It says Daddy's back and he hates those commie pinko peaceniks just as much as you, patriotic red-blooded red-state America! What's next, Band of Preachers? Tammy Duckworth is a great human-interest story, but that's not a reason to support her candidacy. Running her is an act of considerable cynicism-- but it seems to be working. Ari, I'm guessing you'd barely heard of her before a few weeks ago, and you're practically ready to support her. The centrist mantra is working it's magic: Already you're having trouble telling the difference between the candidate who walks the walk and has grassroots support, and the candidate who is basically a photo-op. Who says Duckworth is the more electable of the two, besides the pols who recruited her to run? Duckworth wants to stay in Iraq, she's allied with the more conservative wing of the party, and she seems to have very little substantive to say about most issues. She' s trying to push out of the way a candidate who has a lot of support, more local roots, who ran an incredible race last time, and who has much better politics. I would trust Cegelis a thousand times over Duckworth to take progressive stands once elected, including on women's rights and abortion rights. Duckworth told the Washington Post she thinks abortion shouldn't be a federal issue. That's not exactly a ringing defense of abortion rights, since unfortunately it IS a federal issue. [...] Read it all at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=62706 Good editorial by Tim Grieve in Salon's War Room posted Feb. 22, 2006: The "people responsible" for port deal? Bush, Rumsfeld say: Not us! Read it at: http://tinyurl.com/kruwj I am not finished; I am, however, done ... There will never be a charge for this reading list and I won't ask for contributions. It may be freely distributed as long as it is sent out in its entirety with this statement attached and no charge is made. Of course you are free to use the URLs in your own posts, etc. © Virginia Metze If you got this from a friend and want to be on the list, send your email address to [EMAIL PROTECTED] = = = = = = = = = = = = Virginia's reading list has been shared with you, from ~~Suz~~ * Only 1,060 days remaining until Inaugural Day 1/20/09 * "It is also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion."- Aristotle * "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." George W.Bush, 43rd US President -- CNN.com, December 18, 2000 * "Hi, how ya doing, Big Brother? Nice to see you!" * http://www.toptips.com/debtclock.html * "Life begins at conception and ends at birth. That's when the poor/disenfranchised/overworked/overloaded and under/un-supported women, without access to health care, have to start raising these unplanned children. These children are primarily conceived by forced sex or rape of the woman; now the woman pays the price." * IMPORTANT!! Click here: http://tinyurl.com/cfsrc --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [RobsList] A progressive group that is part of http://robwire.com You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RobsList" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Robslist -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
