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Wednesday, June 18, 2008 |
Human Rights Group Says It Has Proof of Detainee Abuse. Report cites medical review of former inmates.
Washington - A Cambridge-based human rights organization said it has found
medical evidence supporting the claims of 11 former detainees who were allegedly
tortured while in American custody between 2001 and 2004, in what a former top
US military investigator said amounts to evidence of war crimes. read more  [Truthout - All Articles]
6:14:02 PM 
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Raymond J. Learsy: President Bush Calls For Offshore Drilling On Federal Lands. The Tme For a National Oil Trust is Now! President Bush, responding to the national outrage over soaring gasoline prices will be calling on Congress to lift the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling . The issue of offshore drilling is being deeply debated and becoming a hot-button issue in the campaign. President Bush in a
press conference today strongly supported drilling arguing that it would greatly enhance supply and take pressure off of oil prices.
Well and good. But if this is the moment to consider opening large swaths of offshore federal lands to drilling it should also be the moment to consider the creation of an American National Oil Trust, much in keeping with the highly successful and citizen owned Norwegian Oil Trust.
The offshore federal lands belong to the public. Their potential is enormous. The federal Energy Information Agency estimates that roughly 75 billion barrels of oil in the United States are off-limits to development and roughly 16 billion barrels are covered by the offshore moratorium.
We are also a nation who for good or bad have lost our trust in the oil industry to develop our national patrimony in a way that benefits all Americans. Certainly their policies to date are veering the nation toward environmental and economic disaster. Just imagine the extraordinary benefit that would accrue if the net proceeds of an oil trust would be directed to a massive national program developing alternative fuels and alternative energy programs rather than the bottom line of additional billions for Exxon Mobil, Chevron, et al. To calculate the values at stake one could fairly estimate development costs of $30 a barrel (and that is probably very high) to be deducted from today's $130/bbl price, times 16 billion barrels offshore alone- well you do the numbers. A staggering amount of wealth that belongs to the nations citizens rather than ceding it to the oil companies at give away conditions and buying it back at extortionary prices at the pump.
Let me cite some history showing that "hands on" government in situations of national need is not new to our experience. During World War 2 the nation's railroads were nationalized and administered by the U.S. Railroad Administration. Then there is the Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A.) is a powerful and successful example of a governmental enterprise bringing enormous good to a region.
At another time of crisis there was President John F. Kennedy challenging a then gluttonous steel industry, with a forceful scolding, shaming them into compliance:
"Simultaneous and identical actions of United States Steel and other leading steel corporations increasing steel prices by $6 per ton constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest in this serious hour in our nation's history, when we are confronted with grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and stability, when we are asking reservists to leave their homes and families for months on end and servicemen to risk their lives..."
Then, the steel companies backed down. Now the oil companies' bottom line just gets fatter. And there is no one in our leadership seriously holding them to account.
A National Oil Trust could be organized without undue hardship. Certainly there are qualified and talented oil people who would welcome the challenge of serving the nation in such an enterprising endeavor. They could readily replicate what the oil companies would be doing which is to lease offshore drilling platforms to drill, and contract out the needed seismic testing to site the rigs. And if they strike oil or gas, the infrastructure will come. And from beginning to end it will the nation's resource to the profit of all its citizens.
As background know that Norway, after Saudi Arabia and Russia is the third largest exporter of oil in the world. Its National Oil Trust turns over its proceeds to the Government Petroleum Fund to help fund both pensions and to keep the money in trust for future generations.
 - Raymond J. Learsy [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
11:46:51 AM
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Jonathan Tasini: BREAKING: Corporations Admit Trade Is About Lower Wages (Duh) I meant the "breaking" as a snark, in case it wasn't obvious. For everyone but the pro- so-called "free trade" crowd (economists, elites and too many Democrats), it's been crystal-clear that the driving force behind trade is wages, not efficiency, a better product, lower prices for consumers and all the other nonsense you read. Today, even some business people are admitting it, albeit, not intentionally.
The New York Times has a piece today that describes how companies are now fleeing China, or at least hedging their bets, because--get this--labor costs are TOO HIGH:
China remains the most popular destination for foreign industrial investment in the world, attracting almost $83 billion last year. But a growing number of multinational corporations are pursuing a strategy that companies and analysts call "China plus one," establishing or expanding Asian bases outside China, particularly in Vietnam.
A long list of concerns about China is feeding the trend: inflation, shortages of workers and energy, a strengthening currency, changing government policies, even the possibility of widespread civil unrest someday. But most important, wages in China are rising close to 25 percent a year in many industries, in dollar terms, and China is no longer such a bargain. [emphasis added]
And if you can't keep wages down, well, let's just cut the number of workers:
"We will maintain our capacity in China, but we will make it more automatic and reduce the number of employees," said Laurence Shu, the chief financial officer of Shanghai-based Texhong, one of the world's largest makers of cotton and spandex fabric.
To limit labor costs, Hanesbrands is building a largely automated factory in Nanjing. But the company is also building a factory in Vietnam, in addition to a factory it bought here, and two more in Thailand. [Emphasis added]
What does the labor cost issue mean?
In coastal provinces with ready access to ports, even unskilled workers now earn $120 a month for a 40-hour workweek, and often considerably more; wages in inland provinces, where transport is costlier, are somewhat lower but also rising fast. While Chinese wages are still less than $1 an hour, factory workers in Vietnam earn as little as $50 a month for a 48-hour workweek, including Saturdays.
Texhong estimates that average labor costs for each textile worker in China will rise 16 percent this year, including increases in benefits costs -- on top of a 12 percent increase last year. New regulations are making it harder for companies to avoid paying for benefits, like pensions, further increasing labor costs.
When those increases are combined with a currency rising against the dollar at an annual pace of up to 10 percent, labor costs in China are now climbing at 25 percent a year or more.
Got it. Imagine that: China labor is no longer a bargain. Chinese workers are putting in 48-hour workweeks (and we thought we worked too hard) and still earning less than $1 an hour--AND THAT COST IS GETTING TOO HIGH FOR CORPORATIONS.
Yes, I am yelling. Because despite the fact that it is painfully obvious (thanks to a good article by The Times, a paper I regularly criticize for its bias towards so-called "free trade") that wages is the overriding, and, in many case, sole factor driving trade, we still have to hear the gibberish about those who are for so-called "free trade" are enlightened while those who oppose so-called "free trade" are backwards.
Perhaps we could have a public debate and ask: what is the lowest wage, taking into account differences in prices of goods, workers around the world should expect in the future? Is there a floor?
<img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=e30e721b4998e2fd6ce31d336630b7dd"; height="1" width="1"/>
<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=e30e721b4998e2fd6ce31d336630b7dd"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - Jonathan Tasini [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
8:41:33 AM
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ThinkFast: June 18, 2008. 
Having “spent several months experimenting with the limits of physical and psychological pressure,” military officers at Guant[radical]°namo Bay turned to the CIA in late 2002 “to find ways to get terrorism suspects to talk.” CIA lawyer Jonathan M. Fredman “explained that the definition of illegal torture was ‘written vaguely’” and “subject to perception.” “If the detainee dies, you[base ']Äôre doing it wrong,” Fredman said.
According to documents released by the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, the U.S. military “hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross.”
The Senate ethics committee has begun a preliminary investigation into special treatment afforded to Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), who received lower interest rates on their loans from Countrywide Financial. “I don’t know that we did anything wrong. I negotiated a mortgage at a prevailing rate, a competitive rate,[base ']Äù said Dodd.
Some of the nation’s largest banks plan to stop offering student loans to community colleges. In response, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) have introduced legislation requiring lenders in the federal loan program to “extend credit to any eligible student, regardless of such things as income or the number of years of education, as long as the college is part of the program.”
Yesterday, President Bush signed into law the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act, which provides tax relief for military families and “shut[s] a loophole that defense contractors had been using to avoid paying millions of dollars in payroll taxes.” The new law will now require these companies “to pay the taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare programs.”
On the trail today: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) plans to conduct [base ']Äúa seminar on energy and national security this afternoon in the student union at Missouri State University.[base ']Äù Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will meet with his Senior Working Group on National Security and with nearly 40 retired admirals and generals to discuss the state of the military. (more…)
[Think Progress]
8:35:40 AM
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Senators Fume Over Torture Revelations. With statements such as “if the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong” guiding our government’s thinking during the formation and implementation of interrogation techniques, it’s no wonder Carl Levin and others were outraged in the Senate on Tuesday.
According to the Armed Services Committee chairman, “The truth is that senior officials in the United States government sought information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality and authorized their use against detainees.”
BBC:
The committee also released details from previously classified minutes of a meeting in October 2002 in which a top military lawyer at Guantanamo said previously banned techniques such as sleep deprivation were being used secretly.
“Officially it is not happening,” Lt Col Diane Beaver told the meeting, adding that commanders feared the Red Cross might find out.
John Fredman, then chief counsel to the CIA’s counter-terrorism centre, argued during the meeting that torture “is basically subject to perception”.
“If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong,” he said.
Read more
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8:30:41 AM
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CONFIRMED: U.S. Hid Detainees From The Red Cross The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.
"We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques," Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who's since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility -- Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan -- were using sleep deprivation to "break" detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. "True, but officially it is not happening," she is quoted as having said.
A third person at the meeting, Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, disclosed that detainees were moved routinely to avoid the scrutiny of the ICRC, which keeps tabs on prisoners in conflicts around the world.
<img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=b10e5e7feb1ad98de29e4689f1c4f020"; height="1" width="1"/>
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8:00:28 AM
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Michelle Obama Calmly Enters The Spotlight: "You Are Amazed Sometimes At How Deep The Lies Can Be" Michelle Obama's eyes flicker tentatively even as she offers a trained smile. As her campaign plane arcs over the Flathead Range in Montana, she is asked to consider her complicated public image.
Conservative columnists accuse her of being unpatriotic and say she simmers with undigested racial anger. A blogger who supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton circulates unfounded claims that Mrs. Obama gave an accusatory speech in her church about the sins of "whitey." Mrs. Obama shakes her head.
"You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be," she says in an interview. Referring to a character in a 1970s sitcom, she adds: "I mean, 'whitey?' That's something that George Jefferson would say. Anyone who says that doesn't know me. They don't know the life I've lived. They don't know anything about me."
Now her husband's presidential campaign is giving her image a subtle makeover, with a new speech in the works to emphasize her humble roots and a tough new chief of staff. On Wednesday, Mrs. Obama will do a guest turn on "The View," the daytime talk show on ABC, with an eye toward softening her reputation.
<img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=39b7db96809ebfbb1e4d76e428b8f04d"; height="1" width="1"/>
<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=39b7db96809ebfbb1e4d76e428b8f04d"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - The Huffington Post News Editors [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
7:54:35 AM
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Bush To Echo McCain's Plan To Drill In Oceans WASHINGTON — President Bush plans to make a renewed push Wednesday to get Congress to end a long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, echoing a call by GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Congressional Democrats have opposed lifting the prohibitions on energy development on nearly all federal Outer Continental Shelf waters for more than a quarter-century, including waters along both the East and West coasts.
With oil prices soaring and motorists paying $4 a gallon for gasoline, political pressures have been growing for more domestic oil and gas production.
"The president believes Congress shouldn't waste any more time," White House press secretary Dana Perino told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"He will explicitly call on Congress to ... pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling," Perino said. "He wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur."
Bush also will reiterate his call for development of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Perino said. McCain has opposed drilling in the refuge, maintaining that the pristine areas in northeastern Alaska should be protected from energy development.
On Monday, McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. The Arizona senator said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and receive some of the royalty revenue.
Bush has made clear in recent weeks that the drilling moratorium in coastal waters should end to allow for more domestic oil production and help "take the pressure off the price of gasoline."
Democrats, as well as some Republican senators from coastal states, have opposed lifting the drilling prohibitions, fearful that energy development could harm tourism and raise the risk of oil spills on beaches.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling and says that allowing exploration now wouldn't affect gasoline prices for at least five years.
Congress imposed the drilling moratorium in 1981 and has extended it each year since by prohibiting the Interior Department from spending money on offshore oil or gas leases in virtually all coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico and in some areas off Alaska.
President George H.W. Bush imposed a separate executive drilling ban in 1990, which was extended by President Clinton and then by the current president until 2012.
Bush has been considering lifting the executive ban as a symbolic move to get Congress to take action, but he decided against doing so for the time being, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because internal deliberations were involved.
The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to vote on legislation Wednesday that included a provision that would continue the drilling moratorium into late 2009. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., planned to try to strip that provision from the bill. A proposal Peterson offered last week that would open all federal waters 50 miles from shore to oil and gas development was rejected by an Appropriations subcommittee on a 9-6 party-line vote.
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7:51:46 AM
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Georgianne Nienaber: On the Ground: Disaster Flood Engineering Crystal Balls
On Monday, The Army Corps of Engineers admitted flood waters currently contained by 27 levees along the Mississippi River could spill over about two dozen levees along the river in Iowa and Missouri "unless people top the levees with enough sandbags," spokesman Ron Fournier said.
Attempts to reach Fournier for a clarification resulted in a call from his office saying the "quotes were accurate," and that Fournier stood behind them.
The Chicago Sun-Times did make contact.
There is no way to predict whether these levees will break, Fournier told the Sun Times.
''That's a crystal ball that nobody has,'' he said.
Senator and Chairman of the Senate Agricultural Committee, Tom Harkin (D) confirmed in a press release that in eastern Iowa the flooding has washed out railroad lines, major roadways are closed and Mississippi barge traffic has come to a halt. 38,000 people have been displaced, but that is a shifting, incomplete number.
Harkin: "The situation is overwhelming our local agencies"
Today (Tuesday) Harkin's press office announced a federal disaster declaration of 13 Iowa
counties out of 99. This was after the powerful committee chairman sent what amounted to a pleading letter to FEMA on June 13 which read, in part, "Governor Culver has already issued an Emergency Proclamation for nearly all of Iowa's 99 counties, all experiencing significant damage due to the combination of severe rainfall, winds, and flooding. The situation is overwhelming our local agencies."
Now, the Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for more flooding near St. Louis and closed Mississippi River Locks 24 and 25 at Clarksville and Winfield.
In a brilliant public relations spin on their webpage, the Corps says sand is being moved and water is being contained on the east, or protected side of the Chain of Rocks Levee in Illinois. Not to worry though. The corps maintains that "this is not because of flooding."
What?
Corps authorities explain it is a "prudent precaution." After all there are "possibilities of water under seepage along the levee," the corps added. This possibility is buried several levels under the web index page. A fluff piece on lighthouses is featured on page one.
Someone should get a photo of this area and ask the question why, if there is no danger, the corps does not move its heavy equipment north and help move a few of those nearly two million sandbags.
No one seems to have asked the question, so this writer will ask it here. With the epic dimensions of this flood and the scope of the levee and infrastructure failures, how can the Army Corps of Engineers go before the devastated people of central Iowa and those threatened in Missouri and tell them they had better get busy and "top the levees?"
Armies of Industrious Amish and Mennonites
As of June 12, a total of 1,676,700 sandbags and 79 pumps have been issued to support state requests for assistance. But, someone has to lift those monstrously heavy sandbags. Nearly two million sandbags! The Associated Press reports that in Missouri, "armies" of industrious Amish and Mennonites, along with convicted felons and students are heave-hoeing those sandbags.
Whose responsibility is this anyway? Where is the outrage? People are too busy running for their lives to argue, one would assume.
Is this just another example of Naomi Klein's concept of disaster capitalism? The price of corn and grain is about to go through the roof, but America's collective eyes are elsewhere.
The New Orleans advocacy and watchdog group, Levees.org, has issued a statement on the Nola News Ladder saying that the flooding in Cedar Rapids Iowa has been "accurately compared to the flooding in New Orleans when levees breached during Katrina."
That is a noteworthy statement coming from an organization which has fought fiercely to ensure that government failures in the aftermath of Katrina remain in the public eye.
The contention is that the catastrophic failures in New Orleans and now throughout the Midwest can no longer be conveniently blamed upon "God" or "Mother Nature." Levees.org claims that what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere, but this problem is not being addressed. "There are more people in the state of California in danger of catastrophic levee failure than in the states of Texas, Louisiana and Florida combined," says organization head, Sandy Rosenthal. "This is not just a New Orleans issue."
This photo shows Rosenthal in New Orleans on Sunday.
When asked about the Corps's suggestion that residents get busy with sandbagging, Rosenthal told me, "Properly built levees should be the right height and should be designed to withstand a few hours of overtopping -- in the event of a 1,000 year storm -- without danger of breaching."
In a recent statement, Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana (D) concurs, and has called for an independent investigation. She places the blame with "dangers presented by declining infrastructure."
In fact, the United States spends today roughly two-thirds less on civil works investment than it spent in 1960, relative to the gross domestic product," Landrieu said. Read the bill: 8/29 Investigation, Senate Bill 2826.
Reports from the flooded areas are beginning to take on feeling of a d[radical]©j[radical][sgl dagger] vu.
Similar to stories in 2005 that slowly came out of New Orleans, there are reports of frustrated residents who want to return home being turned back at gunpoint, severely polluted waters due to the flooding of livestock areas and broken sewer lines, and water marks that reach up to eight feet on area homes.
So as not to diminish the tragedy of Katrina, it should be stated that most residents of the Midwest floods had the means to escape the rising waters. There are no photos of residents stranded on rooftops or on highway overpasses and so far at least, Blackwater has not made an overt appearance in the area.
How does one quantify the failures and suffering -- if at all?
<img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=9c2ac7d6f7c6d015135a64169a3ef7a3"; height="1" width="1"/>
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7:45:22 AM
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© Copyright 2008 Patricia Thurston.
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