THE BLACKWATER CHARADE * KENT STATE SHOOTINGS

Lately there have been serious civil rights violations — reminiscent of Kent State in 1970 when four students were killed by our National Guard simply for protesting the Vietnam War. A college student was Tasered by police for simply asking too long a question, several people were arrested for wearing ‘Peace’ t-shirts, and a minister was tackled outside the Petraeus hearing ostensibly for wearing an “I love the Iraqi People” button while black. Our fragile democracy is at stake.

From Wikipedia: The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre, occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. Four students were killed and nine others wounded, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

Some of the students who were shot were protesting the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30. However, other students who were shot were merely walking nearby or observing the protest at a distance.

There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, high schools, and even middle schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of eight million students, and the event further divided the country along political lines.

Now Blackwater is trying to open a camp in San Diego at the Mexican border...

THE BLACKWATER CHARADE by Larry




There are approximately 163,100 U.S troops in Iraq while at the same time there are more than 180,000 private security forces in Iraq, most of them employed by Blackwater USA.

The heavy reliance on contractors in a war zone is partly the result of a post-Cold War shrinking of the armed forces and the Bush administration's preference for contracting out government functions to the corporate world.

While having contractors on and around the battlefield is not new, the situation in Iraq raises questions about whether U.S. troops have become so dependent on contract help they could not function properly in their absence.

The presence of thousands of private sector security guards adds another component to the debate. Employees for Blackwater and other companies are engaging the enemy in combat.

As the military leans on the private sector, there's a push to hold contract employees to the same legal standards as military personnel. It appears Blackwater USA security forces have less strenuous rules and laws that apply to them, than do U.S troops.

A 2004 regulation issued by the U.S. occupation authority granted security contractors full immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Unlike American military personnel, the civilian contractors are also not subject to U.S. military law either

It is suspious that contractors are being used to mask the true extent of our involvement in Iraq,What other way can you interpret it when the number of contractors exceeds the number of troops?

A July report from the Congressional Research Service said the State Department has hired over 2,600 private guards to protect U.S. diplomatic personnel and to guard the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as well as other key sites inside the city's "Green Zone.

They are private security in the same make believe sense that our uniformed military is a “volunteer” force, since both are lured by the dollars offered by the same paymaster, the U.S. government. Contractors earn substantially more, despite $20,000 to $150,000 signing bonuses and an all-time-high average annual cost of $100,000 per person for the uniformed military.

The U.S. government purchases whatever army it needs, which has led to the dependence upon private contract firms like Blackwater USA, with its $300-million-plus contract to protect U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq.

The fact that Blackwater USA gets almost all of its revenue from the U.S. government—much of it in no-bid contracts aided, no doubt, by the lavish contributions to the Republican Party made by company founder Erik Prince and his billionaire parents—its operations remain largely beyond public scrutiny.

Blackwater and others in this international security business operate as independent states of their own, subject neither to the rules of Iraq nor the ones that the U.S. government applies to its own uniformed forces. “We are not simply a ‘private security company,’ ” Blackwater claims on its corporate website. “We are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm.

Blackwater USA is not licensed to operate in Iraq, but that didn't stop George W Bush from using them anyway. In fact the Iraqi government that Bush installed are demanding Blackwater leave Iraq after Blackwater troops fired on civilians killing 20.

The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, amid mounting public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the U.S. Embassy’s security provider Blackwater USA.

Blackwater and other private "security" outfits are known to be involved in "secret" government operations. Taxpayers pay their salaries but lack the ability to know what these "private security" forces are doing.

In that regard Americans and Iraqis find themselves in a similar situation. Blackwater has more than $500 million in U.S. government contracts, and that does not include the "black" budget operations.

Columnist Joseph Palermo said the recent incident also raises the question: What are the trained squads of right-wing mercenaries from Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and Dyncorp going to do when they come home from Iraq?

They will probably fulfill a role similar to the one played by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The Pinkertons specialized in breaking strikes and repressing labor union organizing, as well as intimidating progressives in general with violence. Blackwater and its ilk can easily become the new Pinkertons, as they apparently already have in New Orleans.

It seems the wealthy have sealed themselves away in gaited neighborhoods while they espouse policies that strip the public of needed services and starve the faltering middle and lower income groups.

There is quickly coming a time when repressing public resistance to these economic changes will produce a booming market for companies specializing in the violent repression of dissent.

In their gated neighborhoods, the ruling elite will not have to worry about local law enforcement hedging on police repression, they can just hire their own Blackwater Security Force to do their aggression for them.


Image Design by Stephen Pitt Cartoons

Dennis Kucinich on the Basham and Cornell Talk Show

On Monday September 17, Democratic Presidential contender, Dennis Kucinich will be the guest on the Basham and Cornell Radio Show at 8 am Pacific Time on AM 1230 KLAV in Las Vegas.

He was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1977 on the promise to save the city’s municipally-owned electric system which offered customers significantly lower rates than the private utility. A year later, Cleveland’s banks demanded that he sell the city’s 70 year-old municipally-owned electric system to its private competitor (in which the banks had a financial interest) as a precondition of extending credit to the city. The attempted political blackmail failed as did several assassination attempts. He remembered his parents counting out coins on the dresser and refused to sell the people’s power. In an incident unprecedented in modern American politics, the Cleveland banks plunged the city into default for a mere $15 million despite being offered triple collateral to protect the loan.

The principled stand destroyed his political career. He lost his reelection bid. He was demonized as the mayor who threw Cleveland into default. Fifteen years later, the citizens of Cleveland - recognizing he had saved them hundreds of millions of dollars in municipal power bills and also forced the private utility to keep bills low to compete – voted him into the Ohio Senate. His campaign signs featured a light bulb and the expression “Because he was right.” In 1998 the Cleveland City Council honored Dennis for “..having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city’s municipal electric system.”

In 2002 the second great challenge of his elected career occurred. After analyzing the “evidence” presented by the Administration in its rush to folly in Iraq and actually reading the National Intelligence Estimate, he stepped forward to help lead 125 Democrats in voting against the blank check for the President to wage an illegal, immoral and ineffective war.

Speaking from the floor of the House some 140 times against the war and appearing on over 100 radio and talk shows was a risky political move. But it did not stop him. The neo-cons and their complicit friends in media engaged in a frenzy of caustic name calling. In Feb. of 2003 when Dennis explained on “Meet the Press” that oil was a key causal factor for the war and that our troops would be trapped in a costly door-to-door war, administration zealot Richard Perle insisted Dennis’ comments were “scurrilous” and “an out-and-out lie.” For his tireless and courageous efforts he was awarded the Gandhi Peace Award in 2003.

The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) on AM 1230 KLAV in Las Vegas.

Don't miss this great interview Monday morning at 8:00 AM Pacific Time on the BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK SHOW!

You can also listen live or later in the archives at Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk Show

Lets Give Credit, Where Credit is Due

George W Bush has many accomplishments under his wing. Unfortunately for Americans, those accomplishments have cost each one of us dearly. Nevertheless George W Bush is proud of his accomplishments. Therefore lets list some of these accomplishments, and Lets Give Credit, Where Credit Is Due.

•Bush spent the U.S. budget surplus and bankrupted the US Treasury, all in the name of conservatism.

•Bush broke the record for the biggest annual deficit in history.

•Bush set an economic record for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.

•Bush set all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the stock market, and it is still falling.

•Bush set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any President in US history and this was in his first year in office.

•Bush presided over the worst security failure in US history. All this after taking the entire month of August off for vacation.

•Bush set the record for most campaign fund raising trips by any President in US history.

•Bush's first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs. That number has risen to 12 million and growing.

•Bush cut unemployment benefits for out-of-work Americans more than any other President in US history.

•Bush set the all-time record for most real estate foreclosures in a 12-month period. This record will be beaten again this year, due to Bush's economic mess.

•Bush presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. Many of Bush's friends have faced indictment over this.

•Bush cut health care benefits for war veterans. Bush's lack of compassion for the veterans have resulted in 40% of all homeless males are veterans.

•Bush set the all-time record for most people worldwide to jointly take to the streets to protest his war and his policies (17 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history.

•Bush dissolved more International treaties than any President in US history.

•Bush's Presidency is the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.

•Bush's cabinet members are the wealthiest of any administration in US history.

•Bush is the first President in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously face bankruptcy.

•Bush presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any market in any country in the history of the world.

•Bush is the first President in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation, and he did so against the will of the United Nations and the vast majority of the world.

•Bush created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States, called the "Bureau of Homeland Security

•Bush set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any other President in US history.

•Bush is the first President in US history to compel the United Nations remove the US from the Human Rights Commission.

•Bush removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any Presidential in US history.

•Bush called the entire United Nations irrelevant. Bush also withdrew from the World Court of Law.

•Bush refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and he no longer abides by the Geneva Conventions.

•Bush the first President in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 US elections.

•Bush holds the record for the most corporate campaign donations.

•Bush's largest all-time contributor was Ken Lay the embattled CEO of Enron.

•Bush is the first US President to establish a secret shadow government.

•Bush took the world's sympathy for the US after 9/11, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world.

•Bush is the first US President in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view his Presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.

•Bush changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. Many are close political allies of Bush and his father.

•Bush has removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.

• Bush has at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine.
(Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).

•Bush was AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during time of war.

•Bush refused to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.

•Bush's records as Governor of Texas have been hidden in his father's library in a secret chamber.

•Bush's records of any SEC investigations into his insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

•The minutes of meetings of any public corporation for which Bush served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

•The records or minutes from meetings Bush and Cheney attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

As America moves further into the pit of war, and into the twilight of economic despair, we should never forget where we once was as a nation, and we should not be afraid to look at where we are today.

The coming year will give opportunity to choose new leaders, and as we think of where we once was and where we are today, "Lets give credit, where credit is due."

******************
Listen in the archives to Lydia's interview with Charlie Savage, Pulitzer prize winning journalist from the Boston Globe, who broke the story on Bush's signing statements (usurping the Geneva Convention's torture ban, among other things.) Charlie’s new book is titled… "Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy." NATIONAL REPORTING

Don't forget, Congressman and Democratic presidential contender DENNIS KUCINICH will be our guest on on Monday September 17!

The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern). All shows are simulcast on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at BASHAM & CORNELL SHOW

ELIZABETH EDWARDS on BASHAM & CORNELL SHOW TODAY

Today at 8 A.M. Wednesday September 12, the lovely, amazing Elizabeth Edwards will be our guest on BASHAM & CORNELL RADIO at 8 am Pacific Time on AM 1230 KLAV in Las Vegas.

Don't forget, Congressman and Democratic presidential contender DENNIS KUCINICH will be our guest on on Monday September 17! And this hursday September the 13th, we expect to be joined by Charlie Savage, Pulitzer prize winning journalist from the Boston Globe, Charlie’s new book is titled… "Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy."

The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern). All shows are simulcast on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at BASHAM & CORNELL SHOW

Just by walking into the room she changes people. They must think, "Why doesn't she just shrink into the darkness and fear, and give up? How can her husband think of going on with his life's plan? Doesn't cancer stop all that?" No. It is possible to see cancer as a light: bright, glaring and harsh.Elizabeth shares her husband's deep commitment to improving the daily lives of all Americans and making sure that everyone in this country has the opportunity to succeed. A passionate advocate for children and families, as well as an accomplished attorney, she has been a tireless advocate for many important causes.

Elizabeth is the daughter of a decorated Navy pilot. In her early years, she attended school in Japan, where her father was stationed with a reconnaissance squadron, flying missions over China and North Korea. As an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Elizabeth majored in English. She went on to study American literature but then switched to law, graduating from UNC Law School in May 1977. She met John in law school, and they got married the Saturday after they took the bar exam.

John and Elizabeth have four children, including: their eldest daughter, Catharine, who is attending law school; nine-year-old Emma Claire; and a seven-year-old son, Jack. Their first child, Wade, died in 1996. That same year, John and Elizabeth helped establish the Wade Edwards Foundation, and helped build a free computer lab—the Wade Edwards Learning Lab—for high school students in Raleigh. Recently, the foundation opened a similar computer lab in Goldsboro. Elizabeth volunteered at the lab in Raleigh nearly every day, until the family came to Washington following her husband's 1998 election to the U.S. Senate

The country has gotten to know Elizabeth as she has campaigned extensively across the country during her husband's presidential and vice-presidential campaigns. The day after the general election in 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Elizabeth was in remission until March 2007 when she discovered her cancer had returned. Elizabeth and John made the decision to continue on with the campaign and Elizabeth has kept an active schedule of campaign activities. Elizabeth's courageous battle with breast cancer has served as an inspiration to women across the country. _______________________________________________________________________________________



"The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality." --Bono

This small book, based upon the speech given by Bono at the 2006 NPB, delivers an inspiring and powerful message. Here, in Bono's own words, is a reflection on his own faith and a challenge to people of all faiths to reach across boundaries and come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call "the least of these."

"On the Move," is a new book by Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a true visionary in the fight against global poverty and AIDS. This short book is a beautiful hardcover reprint of Bono's magnificent speech to the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, in which he preaches the biblical imperative to justice as well as the boundless possibilities that emerge "when God gets on the move."

Excerpt from a spiritual thinker:

"I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

When politics leads us into entrenched positions that make us resentful of others, we lose our effectiveness. I’ve found that, over and over again. When I'm incensed and angry, and get into arguments with people, absolutely no good comes out of that. So I’ve had to learn from many hard experiences to try to live above just a human position on something.

How can I support a “righteous” government? What’s the best way to support a just government? And I feel that the best way to do that is not through anger, but through willingness to understand, to seek understanding, to express patience and willingness to learn, and to help others learn by your patience. (Of course with Bush and Cheney this is difficult. And they must be held accountable for their numerous crimes.)

I get a lot of inspiration from Gandhi and his approach to politics. And there’s a wonderful story about him, when he went to see the governor of a province in South Africa. Many people may not know that Gandhi really began his political career in South Africa rather than India, where, of course, there was racial discrimination.

And he went to this provincial governor, and told him that he was going to oppose the unjust policies of his government. Well, the provincial governor practically laughed him out of the office, because Gandhi was nobody at that time, and here this man was, very important and powerful. And he said to Gandhi, “Oh, you’re going to oppose me? And how do you propose to do that?” And Gandhi answered, with a smile, “With your help.”

Many years later, the provincial governor wrote that that was exactly how Gandhi did it—through respect, unfailing respect for his opponent, gentleness, persuasion, but it was never through anger, never through scorn or putting someone down, that he won people to his positions.

We want to bring out the good in people. And we don’t do that by offending them and calling them names. We do it by loving the good that’s in everyone, and striving to bring it out. So that’s a challenge I’m striving to live up to every day.

ANOTHER FAVORITE ARTIST: MOBY! I used to listen to "Extreme Ways" over and over, the lyrics of which are brilliant. This is the song that ends each Bourne Identity movie. Moby is a progressive, enlightened Christian like Bono.

On Labor Day Bush Runs Away

DENNIS KUCINICH will be our guest on BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK on September 17!

Keith Olbermann gave another of his riveting "Special Comments" on the unconscious person in the White House. George Bush has shamed our nation. He has written a book revising history for his "legacy." Instead of helping the families of the troops who died for his disastrous war, he is bragging about pocketing speaking fees of $50,000 after he leaves office. He is the cause of their deaths, yet he goes to Iraq on our labor day for a photo op. There is a brilliant post at my friend Alicia's blog called "Suicidal Insanity." Last Left B4 Hooterville

As hard as it is to love our enemies, I believe we must pray deeply for George Bush. We must pray to see him guided by the right ideas and principles, instead of fear. Every thing he has done, has been fear-based and disastrous. It's as if he has no moral compass, no conscience and no feelings for others or what they go through. He is playing with toy soldiers.

But there is a spiritual power that is much bigger than Bush or any of us, believe me I know firsthand. When we actually put into practice true prayer (which has nothing to do with the anthropomorphic fear and punishment fundamentalist god of the religious right) THINGS ACTUALLY CHANGE.

This is a universe of laws of harmony. We ourselves must stop our defeatism. Refuse to allow any thought of Bush starting war with Iran into your consciousness. We ourselves cannot be fearful. Bush cannot have that much power. We will not allow him to start war with Iran. I for one, am seeing him as waking up. If he has even a glimmer of the true "Christ" within, he will know he has been ruled by fear. Love casts out fear.

We have to stop saying "Bush is going to attack Iran" as if it's a done deal. We can say, "We will not tolerate this any longer" but let's get active. We need to get out on the streets.

We need to hold our thoughts higher about the man. It is metaphysics and I guarantee it works. As hard as it is to change our vision of him, we have to. Our vision of him will create a different outcome.

ON THIS LABOR DAY ...



On this Labor Day in the United States, a national holiday established more than a century ago to honor the American worker, Americans typically spend the day away from work, enjoying picnics in the park or spending the last holiday of the summer outdoors.

We must not forget that U.S. workers had to literally fight for their rights to a decent wage and improved working conditions and many risked their lives trying to organize.

In 1894, some 34 railway union members were killed when President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops to break up a railroad strike outside Chicago, Illinois. Cleveland, who was up for re-election that year, needed to appease angry workers nationwide, so he signed into law a national holiday called Labor Day in honor of the worker.

Violence against U.S. workers continued in the 20th century. In 1902, 14 coal miners
were killed by a mine company's private police force. In 1911, about 150 people, mostly women and children, died in a fire working in a New York City sweatshop, Massachusetts police beat women and children in a textile strike.

Americans labor in many different ways. On this Labor Day, the number of people without health insurance continues to rise, up to 15.8% last year. 47 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2006, an increase of 8 million since Bush took office.

Median annual earnings for full-time, year-round workers dropped from last year, the third year in a row. Household income is down $956 since 2000. It rose slightly last year because more household members are working, and for longer hours. But they are getting paid less for their work.

Wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s.

The trend to re-classify full-time workers as “independent contractors” continues to rise. Although the same work is done by the same people, contracting it out allows employers to avoid the minimum wage increase and terminate benefits that accrue only to “employees.” Reclassification also lets them avoid payroll taxes, a dodge that creates an invisible subsidy to corporate America in the range of $3 billion.

Since 2000, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance for families have skyrocketed. The average monthly worker contribution for family coverage in 2000 was $135. It has increased to $298 or by 84%.

In the first quarter of the year, wages and salaries represented 41 percent of gross domestic product, down from almost 50 percent in the first quarter of 2001 and a record 53.6 percent in the first quarter of 1970, according to the Commerce Department.

The corporate policies of George W Bush has allowed more manufacturing companies to move overseas in the last six years, giving the country a trade deficit of more than $700 billion annually. And the jobs lost in manufacturing have been disproportionately union jobs.

While the unionization rate in manufacturing was more than 40 percent in the sixties, in 2006 it was just 11.6 percent, less than the 12 percent average for all workers, although still somewhat higher than the 7.4 percent average for the private sector as a whole.

Government policies have also supported anti-union practices in other ways. A main purpose of trade agreements like NAFTA was to make it as easy as possible to relocate factories overseas.

A 30 percent over-valued dollar effectively imposes a 30 percent tariff on goods exported from the United States, while providing a subsidy of 30 percent on goods imported into the United States.

We have a growing crisis in America today, and it is our own countries purposeful neglect of the homeless, the hungry, and the working poor. It was recently reported that there are nearly one million people that are homeless in the United States today.

Even worse, over 40% of the homeless are families. Reuters reported that more Americans went homeless and hungry in 2006 than the year before and that children made up almost one quarter of those in emergency shelters.

Nearly one million families lost their homes last year. This year, it will likely be 2 million. There were 25,000 layoffs in the mortgage industry in the first three weeks of August. Building supply and furniture manufacturers have been cutting back. With home construction 25 percent below last year and falling, hundreds of thousands of building trades workers could lose their jobs.

As economic conditions worsen, right-wing corporate interests are always ready to sow division and fear. It’s the immigrants’ fault. Consumers aren’t spending enough. Consumers aren’t saving enough. It’s the government’s fault for wasting your tax dollars on health care for kids.

In the Great Depression of the 1930s, the American people rejected those arguments. They rejected racism, and under the slogan “Black and white, unite and fight," They organized unions that raised wages and improved working conditions.

On this another Labor Day, Americans have labored with the fact that their sons and daughters, neighbors and friends are strapped in an endless war for profit, with no end in sight.

The U.S economy is quickly falling into a severe recession, that could very well end up in a Modern Day Depression if something isn't done. Millions of Americans lose their jobs each month, millions more are underemployed.

There is much laboring going on in America, on this Labor Day. The homeless labor for a better way, our nation labors over those stuck in a needless war, each American labors over the future of the economy and those in the workplace labor with fear over the future of their employment.

That is America, On This Labor Day!


We live in the richest country in the world. There's plenty to spare and for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great , true principle -- the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of this start? There are corporations worth billions of dollars--and hundreds of thousands of people who don't get to eat.

Carson McCullers

The Price For Exposing Corruption in Iraq

There are brave soldiers and Americans who step forward on occasion to report abuse, corruption, fraud and an assortment of other activities that would land most Americans in jail for their crimes.

There brave individuals are seldom rewarded for their honesty and loyalty to the country they serve. Instead many find themselves in more trouble than any criminal would ever go through.

Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods. He was told very little about why he was there.

There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators yelling the same questions over and over, that Vance began to wish he had just kept his mouth shut.

Vance thought he was doing his Patriotic duty when he started telling the FBI about the guns and the land mines and the rocket-launchers all of them being sold for cash, no receipts necessary, he said. He told a federal agent the buyers were Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry employees.

So Vance says he blew the whistle, supplying photos and documents and other intelligence to an FBI agent in his hometown of Chicago because he didn’t know whom to trust in Iraq.

For his efforts, he says, he got 97 days in Camp Cropper, an American military prison outside Baghdad that once held Saddam Hussein, and he was classified a security detainee.

Corruption has often occurred in Iraq reconstruction. Hundreds of projects will never be finished, including repairs to the country’s oil pipelines and electricity system. Congress gave more than $30 billion to rebuild Iraq, and at least $8.8 billion of it has disappeared, according to a government reconstruction audit.

The Project on Government Oversight says they will never find out what corruption is going on if people fail to come forward and reveal such abuses. The problem is the U.S government is sending a message to anyone involved, if you tell you will pay dearly.

The highest-ranking civilian contracting officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bunny Greenhouse testified before a congressional committee in 2005 that she found widespread fraud in multi billion-dollar rebuilding contracts awarded to former Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

Greenhouse was quickly demoted after she told of her findings of corruption. She now sits isolated in a small area for a workstation waiting for the other shoe to drop, all because she revealed what any good American should if they found such illegalities.

Julie McBride worked as a “morale, welfare and recreation coordinator” at Camp Fallujah, she saw KBR inflate costs by double and triple counting the number of soldiers who used recreational facilities.She also said the company took supplies destined for a Super Bowl party for U.S. troops and instead used them to stage a celebration for themselves.

McBride voiced her concerns about what she believed to be accounting fraud, Halliburton placed her under guard and kept her in seclusion,” she told the committee. Her property was searched, and she was told that she was not allowed to speak to any member of the U.S. military. She remained under guard until she was flown out of the country. Halliburton and KBR denied her testimony in court.

The Bush administration was quick to give many no bid contracts to Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and many other corporations loyal to the Bush/Cheney conglomerate of business elite.

The U.S government either fails or refuses to monitor where taxpayer dollars go involving the Iraqi reconstruction. Bush regularly seeks and receives billions of dollars from Congress to supposedly rebuild the country he has completely destroyed.

These are a few of the countless stories coming to light of what innocent people go through if they expose corruption inside George W Bush's war in Iraq. Each story is similar in nature and telling about why the U.S is really in Iraq.

As thousands of American and Iraqi lives are taken as a results of Bush's onslaught of destruction, the rebuilding is continually being delayed, more U.S funds are filtered into the hands of corporate allies of Bush.

How long will the war in Iraq last? It will last as long as Congress sits idly by and allows American citizens to be thrown in prison, demoted from their jobs and financially destroyed for doing what Congress should do.

If honest Americans are punished and abused for revealing massive corruption within the Bush administration and their corporate allies, what does that say about our government?


Image by Stephen Pitt Cartoons

AMERICAN PSYCHO TED NUGENT is a DRAFT DODGER TOO

Force always attracts men of low morality.
Albert Einstein

Why isn't Ted Nugent in jail? He should be arrested for threatening the lives of public servants, and he should be fined for waving automatic weapons around in a public place, advocating killing humans for sport, as a form of pornographic violence. We need to make sure people like this are held responsible for their anti-American unpatriotic, treasonous behavior. Are our children feel safe with this monster loose on the streets? He is the male Ann Coulter, but with even more testosterone. And SHAME on Sean Hannity for not condemning these remarks.

Warning: the language in the article below is not appropriate for children or any living, moral creature.

Gonzo is gone, and if you don't know why, I'll list some of his crimes at the end of this article tomorrow. But not enough attention has been paid to Ted Nugent, a true representative of the Bush-Cheney administration. I know it's sort of taboo to write about such a sad joke as Nugent -- but he so perfectly represents the extreme right-wingers who have taken over our civilized society.

Study history Ted: when man enjoys killing animals for sport (as Cheney does, and Bush did as a child) society begins to die. It's not a good sign.

Facing a draft, Nugent bravely wet his pants
Rocker is all talk as he calls Obama, Hillary vile names

August 27, 2007
BY RICHARD ROEPER Sun-Times Columnist
So Ted Nugent roams a concert stage while toting automatic weapons, calls Barack Obama "a piece of -----" and says he told Obama to suck on one of his machine-guns. He also calls Hillary Clinton a "worthless bitch" and Dianne Feinstein a "worthless whore."

That Nugent, he's a man's man. He talks the talk and walks the walk, right?

Except when it was time to register for the draft during the Vietnam era. By his own admission, Nugent stopped all forms of personal hygiene for a month and showed up for his draft board physical in pants caked with his own urine and feces, winning a deferment. Creative!

Ah, but that was a long time ago. Nugent isn't just a washed-up rocker -- he's a right-wing madman who's not afraid to call out some of the leading Democrats in language so vile it makes the Dixie Chick Natalie Maines' comments about President Bush sound like a love poem.

You'd think even someone such as Sean Hannity would dismiss Nugent as a macho clown, desperate for attention.

Yeah, right.

In a discussion on his show last week, Hannity refused to condemn Nugent's remarks, saying, "I like Ted Nugent . . . he's a friend of mine," and even laughing loudly as Alan Colmes read the transcript of some of Nugent's remarks.

Funny. I don't remember Hannity being so cavalier about the Dixie Chicks went they criticized Bush.

Not that he's operating under a double standard or anything.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/roeper/529419,CST-NWS-roep27.article

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. -Albert Einstein