The Rational Radical's Weblog

Friday, August 06, 2004

Halliburton Settles S.E.C. Accusations

The Halliburton Company secretly changed its accounting practices when Vice President Dick Cheney was its chief executive, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday as it fined the company $7.5 million and brought actions against two former financial officials.

The commission said the accounting change enabled Halliburton, one of the nation's largest energy services companies, to report annual earnings in 1998 that were 46 percent higher than they would have been had the change not been made. It also allowed the company to report a substantially higher profit in 1999, the commission said.

The commission did not say that Mr. Cheney acted improperly, and the papers released by the commission did not detail the extent to which he was aware of the change or of the requirement to disclose it to investors. The S.E.C. said that Mr. Cheney had testified under oath and had 'cooperated willingly and fully in the investigation conducted by the commission's career staff.'

Sounds like an SEC coverup for Cheney, doesn't it? What a crook this guy is!

Jack Clark 9:28 PM [+]   
Post #109185290211423209

6 Are Charged With Murder After Paraguay Store Fire

Prosecutors in Paraguay filed murder charges on Tuesday against the owners and security guards of a megastore in Asuncion where as many as 460 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a fire over the weekend.

Paraguay has only 1/48 the population of the U.S. Their loss is proportionally the same as the U.S. losing 22,000 dead in a tragedy. That's over 7X our 9/11 toll. But the Paraguayan dead apparently don't count very much, because I don't see much global hand-wringing over these deaths.

Jack Clark 9:11 PM [+]   
Post #109185190287599142

Convictions Intact, Nader Soldiers On

Mr. Nader and Mr. Camejo and the volunteers met at the Green Party headquarters here, a small storefront in a relatively low-rent area of this prosperous beach town [Santa Monica]. The Green Party backed Mr. Nader in 2000, but rejected him this year. Still, some overlap remains and when the Nader volunteers had nowhere else to meet, the Green Party turned over its offices.

I've told local Greens that I will be cancelling my Green voter registration and never give them another donation if they do anything further to help Nader. That goes double if their "Presidential" candidate David Cobb keeps saying that even in a battleground state, he would urge people to vote for him!

Jack Clark 9:03 PM [+]   
Post #109185143513520715

More Animal Abuse

Alain Jourden, a French fisherman, held on to one of the world's lesser known sporting titles - champion snail spitter - by propelling one 31 feet. Mr. Jourden, 43, beat back challenges from 110 rivals from 14 countries, including Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, but failed to surpass his own world distance record of 34 feet. 'Wind conditions were not favorable,' said one of the organizers of Sunday's event, which drew 2,000 spectators to the tiny port of Mogueriec, in Brittany. Competitors roll the live snail in their mouths, positioning the angle, take a running start along a sandy 65-foot track and spit. A maximum of three attempts is allowed.(Agence France-Presse)

This is really disgusting.

Jack Clark 8:57 PM [+]   
Post #109185103452662722

Reading the Script

As the movie 'Outfoxed' makes clear, Fox News is for all practical purposes a G.O.P. propaganda agency. A now-famous poll showed that Fox viewers were more likely than those who get their news elsewhere to believe that evidence of Saddam-Qaeda links has been found, that W.M.D. had been located and that most of the world supported the Iraq war.

CNN used to be different, but Campaign Desk, which is run by The Columbia Journalism Review, concluded after reviewing convention coverage that CNN 'has stooped to slavish imitation of Fox's most dubious ploys and policies.' Seconds after John Kerry's speech, CNN gave Ed Gillespie, the Republican Party's chairman, the opportunity to bash the candidate. Will Terry McAuliffe be given the same opportunity right after President Bush speaks?

And MSNBC is even WORSE! Take off Phil Donahue, and give us Joe Scarborough and Dennis Miller. Not to mention castrate Chris Matthews, who after his intellectual evisceration of Ann Coulter was apparently told to kowtow to the right, or else.

Jack Clark 8:55 PM [+]   
Post #109185090997168125

Brazil Is Leading a Largely South American Mission to Haiti

"Brazil really did take a leadership role at a crucial moment, and that's a big deal," a senior American official said in an interview in Washington in June.

'The Caribbean countries were offended by what happened in Haiti, and have tried to stay away from any kind of meaningful engagement. But Brazil not only put itself forward, it also brought along the rest of Mercosur,' the South American customs union that includes Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

But that is precisely what worries some left-wing dissident voices in Brazil's governing Workers Party. 'The current mission runs the risk of becoming part of the U.S.'s international military policy of finding regional gendarmes to play a tutorial role in countries Washington considers incapable of governing themselves,' Emir Sader, a party leader, complained recently and 'legitimates a military operation that overthrew a legitimately elected government.'

It's really a shame how Lula has jumped at the opportunity to help enforce U.S. hegemony in the Caribbean.

Jack Clark 8:49 PM [+]   
Post #109185055229868350

Why I’ve Stopped Protesting and Started Registering Voters

I believe that the failure or success of the post-9/11 anti-war movement will be decided on Election Day 2004. This is a BIG picture movie for America. This is a generational and directional moment of truth for the people of this nation. The election is way beyond Bush versus Kerry and elephants versus donkeys. This is election is a referendum on fascism. The current administration has strayed outside the boundaries of neo-imperial capitalism and wandered into an ugly terrain of racial and religious persecution, concentration camps, unprovoked war and invasion, and super nationalism not seen in the Western world since …well, I’ll let the reader fill in that blank. But the stakes are frighteningly clear.

The day after John Kerry is elected President; I’m reaching for my sign and heading for the streets. We need an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. We need to repeal the Patriot Act. We need massive cuts in the military budget and equally large investments in social programs. We need universal healthcare, housing, employment, and college education. We need structural reforms in U.S. democracy, criminal justice, and economics. Kerry and the Democrats will resist fundamental change but they will do so within the bounds of representative democracy and civil liberties.

Common sense allows one to distinguish between a rain storm and a hurricane. Sometimes it IS about a matter of degree.

That’s why I’ve stopped protesting and started registering voters.

I agree. Especially because of the excerpt above I bold-faced, this is what I've been telling solidarity-oriented people I know: the most effective way you can help the Third World poor right now is do is to make sure Bush is defeated. However bad Kerry is, he's nowhere near as bad as Bush, and influencing Kerry post election will be at least theoretically possible, but our influencing Bush post-election is a certain impossibility. And beyond anything else, solidarity-oriented activists won't be doing much organizing at all on behalf of the Third World poor while these activists are being tortured by waterboarding in a domestic Gitmo during a second Bush administration.

Jack Clark 8:35 PM [+]   
Post #109184975504534592

Economy added only 32,000 jobs last month

[T]he economy added only 32,000 jobs in July, a second straight month of weak hiring... Forecasters had predicted the economy would add between 200,000 and 300,000 jobs in July, according to Thomson Financial.

Not such good news for U.S. workers, or for the Bushian scum that exploit them.

Jack Clark 3:58 PM [+]   
Post #109183314067362116

Going It Alone: Accolades now come to Knight Ridder for its prescient reports expressing skepticism about claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

'Knight Ridder is not, in some people's eyes, seen as playing in the same ball field as the New York Times and some major networks,' Strobel says. 'People at the Times were mainly talking to senior administration officials, who were mostly pushing the administration line. We were mostly talking to the lower-level people or dissidents, who didn't necessarily repeat the party line.'

Those sources, Knight Ridder Washington Editor Clark Hoyt adds, were 'closest to the information.'

'I'm not saying we didn't have any top-level sources,' Strobel says, 'but we also made a conscious effort to talk to people more in the bowels of government who have a less political approach to things.'

Interesting.

Jack Clark 9:20 PM [+]   
Post #109176601109101759

The Hand-Over That Wasn't: Illegal Orders give the US a Lock on Iraq's Economy

These little noticed orders enacted by Bremer, the now-departed head of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, go to the heart of Bush administration plans in Iraq. They lock in sweeping advantages to American firms, ensuring long-term U.S. economic advantage while guaranteeing few, if any, benefits to the Iraqi people.

...Further, the interim constitution of Iraq, written by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, solidifies the orders by making them virtually impossible to overturn.

A sampling of the most important orders demonstrates the economic imprint left by the Bush administration: Order No. 39 allows for: (1) privatization of Iraq's 200 state-owned enterprises; (2) 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses; (3) "national treatment" — which means no preferences for local over foreign businesses; (4) unrestricted, tax-free remittance of all profits and other funds; and (5) 40-year ownership licenses.

Iraq is, essentially, a U.S. colony.

Jack Clark 9:02 PM [+]   
Post #109176497780215609

Red Cross: US Abuse Could Be War Crime

The organization, which maintains a rigidly neutral stance in public, took the unusual step of voicing its concerns in uncompromising language after the former detainees, known as the Tipton Three, revealed that they had been beaten, shackled, photographed naked and in one incident questioned at gunpoint while in US custody.

...Last night the Red Cross was joined by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, which argued that if the allegations were true they indicated systematic abuse, amounting to torture.

My president, George W. Bush, would never countenance such goings on. This is Commie propaganda. After all, why is it called the "Red" Cross?!

Jack Clark 8:59 PM [+]   
Post #109176479942331523

Bishops Bar Communion for Politicians Who Support Abortion Rights

Roman Catholic bishops in three Southeastern dioceses said Wednesday they will deny Communion to lawmakers who consistently support abortion rights unless the dissenting politicians publicly recant.

I don't know about their views on other matters, oh, say, about politicians who refuse to help the poor and violate the explicit teachings of Jesus on that point, but I suspect that these bishops are quintessential right-wing pseudo-Christians.

Jack Clark 8:53 PM [+]   
Post #109176442216390868

McCain Condemns Veterans' Anti-Kerry Ad

Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.

...Jim Rassmann, an Army veteran who was saved by Kerry, said there were only six crewmates who served with Kerry on his boat. Five support his candidacy, and one is deceased.

Much to his credit, Bill O'Reilly condemned the ad, as did his guest Dick Morris. Susan Estrich, filling in for Alan Colmes, should be praised also, doing a pretty good job cross-examining one of the veterans featured in the ad. Thankfully, Estrich exhibited none of her frozen-smile stares into the camera. On the down side, Hannity, true to form, did not condemn the ad. Hannity also obsessed about how horrible it was that Kerry admitted committing war crimes in Vietnam. In the next breath, Hannity condemns Kerry for accusing U.S. troops there of committing such war crimes. But if Hannity believes Kerry's admission, Hannity must also logically agree with Kerry's charge about U.S. troops in general there, since certain of the war crimes in question, free-fire zones for example, were clearly part of official military policy in Vietnam.

Jack Clark 8:48 PM [+]   
Post #109176409432128517

All this talk from Greens about how it's okay to vote for their candidate in states "safe" for Kerry (and similar talk among Nader supporters about voting for him in such states) is WRONG! Why? Because such votes suppress the Kerry total nationally. True, the national popular vote doesn't legally select the president. But if Kerry wins, the size of his national vote win will establish the size of his mandate. And, if there's an electoral college tussel, the bigger the Kerry popular win, the less likely the Republicans will be able to steal the election. Finally, negative talk about Kerry even in "safe" states, given the national nature of our media, will bleed into the battleground states and, again, suppress the Kerry vote total in those battleground states, and could cost Kerry the election.

Jack Clark 8:27 PM [+]   
Post #109167684850383160

Study: Millions Have Lost Coverage

Nearly 9 million Americans lost their employer-provided health insurance from 2001 to 2003, with low-income workers and Latinos feeling the biggest impact, says a study released today.

The Bushian violations of the teachings of Jesus are so blatant as to make one wonder how they can claim to be Christians with a straight face.

Jack Clark 9:28 PM [+]   
Post #109159373690139436

Study: Wal-Mart Hurts Taxpayers

Employment practices at Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer with relatively lower labor costs in the retail sector, cost California taxpayers about $86 million annually in public assistance to company workers, according to a study released Monday by a UC Berkeley research institute.

The study estimates that low wages force employees to accept $32 million annually in health-related services and $54 million per year in other assistance, such as subsidized school lunches, food stamps and subsidized housing.

If you pay people too little, they will be forced to turn to the government for help with necessities like food, housing and medical care. Common sense, no?

Jack Clark 9:27 PM [+]   
Post #109159364489331267

Eisenhower's 1956 Message Lost on Today's Misguided Republican Party

Eisenhower, who classically reminded us of the dangers of the military-industrial complex as he left office, would find the Bush-Cheney melding of foreign policy and military action for the profit of their corporate clients appalling and dangerous. It would grieve him that the very unholy alliances he warned us of had literally taken control of the Republican Party.

As Bush and company look for more weapons systems and reasons to justify their use, Eisenhower provided us with a far more restrained, prudent and realistic vision of the use of armaments as instruments of America's dominant role in the world.

He told the 1956 GOP Convention, 'We have worked unceasingly for the promotion of effective steps in disarmament so that the labor of men could with confidence be devoted to their own improvement rather than wasted in the building of engines of destruction.'

A line like that at George Bush's second nominating convention would get the speaker booed off the podium.

Who said recently that compared to the Bushians, Nixon's practically a Communist!

Jack Clark 9:21 PM [+]   
Post #109159331731748630

Doctors Ignore Torture at Gitmo

While so much media attention was on Coulter, a stunning July 29 piece from that anti-American left-wing loony rag, the New England Journal Of Medicine, went completely unnoticed. It's about U.S. doctors' complicity in the torture of prisoners, at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay and other detention centres.

'We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture,' writes Dr. Robert Jay Lifton. 'In addition, they have turned over prisoners' medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners' weaknesses or vulnerabilities.'

Lifton, an expert on how doctors can become inured to atrocity, goes on to compare these violations of medical protocol to what happened among doctors in Nazi Germany, although he stops short of actually equating the two situations.

I guess they took the Hypocritic Oath, not the Hippocratic Oath.

Jack Clark 9:15 PM [+]   
Post #109159294977180267

Jeb Fostering Neo-Jim Crow?

According to Alma Gonzalez, spokesman for the Voter Protection Coalition in Florida and special counsel to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, 'Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents showed up at the homes of absentee voters, many of whom were minorities, and asked them if they had really voted, if they had actually sold their votes, and otherwise questioned them in an unfriendly manner while revealing side-arms.'

Reminiscent of the good ol' Jim Crow days, Gonzalez said that his organization is asking the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to conduct a formal investigation into the matter.

So how about it, President Bush? Would it be asking too much for you to ask your brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to look into that?

Scary!

Jack Clark 9:08 PM [+]   
Post #109159249549870627

Fahrenheit 9/11 is banned in Kuwait

Abdul-Aziz Bou Dastour of the Information Ministry says: 'We have a law that prohibits insulting friendly nations.'

He insists the film 'insulted the Saudi royal family by saying they had common interests with the Bush family and that those interests contradicted with the interests of the American people."

Being banned in Kuwait is one of the greatest endorsements the film could get!

Jack Clark 5:22 PM [+]   
Post #109157893214742876

I like this quote:

Mr. Zinn delivers a challenge when he says, ''To be neutral and to be passive is to collaborate with whatever is going on.'' Democracy he defines as ''not just a counting-up of votes'' but a ''counting-up of actions.'' Those are fighting words.

''Not just a counting-up of votes'' You know, at this point with the Bushians in power, I'd almost be happy to actually get a counting up of votes.

Jack Clark 2:54 PM [+]   
Post #109157007207402261

Letter

To the Editor:

Re 'Kerry's Acceptance: 'There Is a Right Way and a Wrong Way to Be Strong' '' (transcript, July 30):

None of your analysts or editorialists seem to have noticed the clear implication of John Kerry's claim that 'I defended this country as a young man': that the war in Vietnam was, as George W. Bush has claimed of his war in Iraq, a war of self-defense.

This is not a promising start for the effort to restore credibility to the White House.

Especially since Kerry after coming back from Vietnam became a leader of the anti-war protests precisely because the Vietnam War was not a "defense" of this country. But I quibble: Anybody But Bush!

Jack Clark 9:33 PM [+]   
Post #109150763079847314

Iraq Confounds, Kerry Contorts

I think John Kerry is fundamentally anti-war -- he has to be after experiencing the insanity of Vietnam. I think his vote for Mr. Bush's Iraq folly was a cynical political choice, not a genuine commitment. I have to believe that fewer people will die in Iraq during a Kerry administration.

I sure hope so.

Jack Clark 9:19 PM [+]   
Post #109150675685839159

Can’t Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode?

Salem Chalabi, the brother of convicted fraudster Ahmad and the man entrusted by the Americans with the tribunal, told the Iraqi press two weeks ago that all media would be excluded from future court hearings. And I can see why. Because if Saddam does a Milosevic, he’ll want to talk about the real intelligence and military connections of his regime — which were primarily with the United States.

I'm surprised as hell that Saddam hasn't already been killed so he can't open his mouth.

Jack Clark 9:14 PM [+]   
Post #109150645258827027