| |
 |
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 |
Consortium: "'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.
In less paranoid times, Graham's comments might be viewed by many Americans as a Republican trying to have it both ways - ingratiating himself to an administration of his own party while seeking some credit from Washington centrists for suggesting Congress should have at least a tiny say in how Bush runs the War on Terror.
But recent developments suggest that the Bush administration may already be contemplating what to do with Americans who are deemed insufficiently loyal or who disseminate information that may be considered helpful to the enemy.
Top U.S. officials have cited the need to challenge news that undercuts Bush's actions as a key front in defeating the terrorists, who are aided by 'news informers' in the words of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
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.
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'.
The Army document, first drafted in 1997, underwent a 'rapid action revision' on Jan. 14, 2005."
George W. Bush and his cabal have a lot of enemies, and those include the American people.
Consortium: "The gravest indictment of the American news media is that George W. Bush has gutted the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter - yet this extraordinary story does not lead the nation's newspapers and the evening news every day."
The Nazis called this the Gleichschaltung.
Big Brother is watching. Ignorance is Strength. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.
12:47:45 PM 
|
|
TheSun: "Mum Andre Green has been banned from shopping at an Aldi store - because bosses think she looks SUSPICIOUS.
A mum aged 58 who wore a hooded top on a bad hair day was ordered to take it off by a jobsworth Tesco guard because of a hoodies ban."
12:29:50 PM
|
|
MiamiHerald: "Faced with a $650 million shortfall to pay for his state's Medicaid program, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen cuts 191,000 low-income people from the struggling health plan."
Chron: "Bush's new HSA (Health Savings Accounts) is actually a rocket-powered tax shelter dressed up as a sweet little program to help the uninsured. It would also undermine the traditional health coverage now offered by employers. And in case anyone still cares about deficits, it would cost the Treasury $156 billion in lost tax revenues over 10 years - more than wiping out any savings Bush hopes to achieve with his cuts in projected Medicare spending.
An HSA lets people put pre-tax earnings into a tax-advantaged account to be tapped for medical expenses. They must also buy a high-deductible health insurance policy to pay for big-ticket medical needs.
If you thought that the people most in need of help buying health coverage were the working poor, you haven't been hanging around administration circles. The Bush plan would raise the amount that could be contributed into an HSA to $10,000 a year, a sum even most middle-class families don't have lying around.
'This is not about health care anymore,' notes Jason Furman, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 'It's an excuse for allowing people to put $10,000 away tax-free.'
Demonically, the Bush proposal gives employers new reasons not to offer traditional health coverage, or any medical benefits at all. Indeed, the new health savings accounts could do to the traditional health plan what the 401(k) plan did to the traditional pension: Kill it off.
The changes would lead to 1.4 million people losing their employer coverage."
12:25:08 PM
|
|
Yesterday Newsnight broadcast a programme (available online for a limited time) about a Human Rights First report on 98 deaths in US military custody in the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. The abuse ranges from 'negligent homicide' to outright torture.
TimesofMalta: "The US is 'aware' of torture taking place in Iraqi prisons, according to the outgoing Maltese UN human rights chief in Iraq.
'Yes, torture is happening now, mainly in illegal detention places. Such centres are mostly being run by militia that have been absorbed by the police force,' says John Pace, who retired last week as human rights chief for the UN assistance mission in Iraq.
In a frank interview with The Times, Dr Pace says photos and forensic records have proved that torture was rife inside detention centres. Though the process of release has been speeded up, there are an estimated 23,000 people in detention, of whom 80 to 90 per cent are innocent.
He says the Baghdad morgue received 1,100 bodies in July alone, about 900 of whom bore evidence of torture or summary execution. That continued throughout the year and last December there were 780 bodies, including 400 having gunshot wounds or wounds as those caused by electric drills."
HumanRightsFirst: "On January 5, 2006, Human Rights First and the ACLU filed a consolidated amended complaint in the civil lawsuit charging Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with legal responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody in Afghanistan and Iraq."
11:51:29 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2008.
|
|
|
|
|
