British soldiers have clashed with Iraqis after a number of UK servicemen died in a helicopter crash in the southern city of Basra.
...
BBC correspondents in Iraq say the events have opened a new chapter for British forces in the area - and it will be increasingly difficult for them to control Basra's streets.
...
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Chevron memo is raising suspicion that oil executives intentionally reduced refining capacity in an effort to boost profits. The 1995 memo, obtained by Consumers Union, reads:
"If the U.S. petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capacity, it will never see any substantial increase in refinery profits."
In the last 20 years, 18 of California's 32 refineries have shut down (my em). The industry is now seeing record prices and profits at the pump.
U.S. Marines go hungry
By BOB KERR
The Providence Journal
02-MAY-06
The Iraq war has been the war fought on the cheap _ not enough body armor, not enough armor on vehicles, not enough night vision equipment.
It has been the war in which packages from back home have had to fill some crucial needs.
Now, we have chow call at the Greenwood Credit Union in Warwick, R.I. It's the latest in home-front intervention. It's partially in response to the unthinkable image of U.S. Marines approaching Iraqi citizens and asking for food because they do not have enough.
There's a big barrel in the lobby of the credit union on Post Road in Warwick. It's decorated with ribbons and it's there because Karen Boucher-Andoscia's son, Nick Andoscia, called and asked his mother to send food.
Nick's a Marine corporal. He was in Afghanistan last year, where there was enough to eat. He's in Iraq now even though his enlistment was up last year.
He's one of those Marines who can't walk away. His unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marines, was headed for Iraq and he just couldn't head for civilian life while those he had served with were heading to their second war.
"He extended," says Karen. "He told me, 'I really have to go. I can't let my guys go alone.' "
There are a lot of stories like that. We don't hear them much. They're kind of personal.
So Nick Andoscia went to Iraq. And hunger soon followed.
"I got a letter," says Karen. "And he had called me before that. He said, 'Send lots of tuna.' "
Nick told his mother that he and the men in his unit were all about 10 pounds lighter in their first few weeks in Iraq. They were pulling 22-hour patrol shifts. They were getting two meals a day and they were not meals to remember.
"He told me the two meals just weren't cutting it. He said the Iraqi food was usually better. They were going to the Iraqis and basically saying, 'feed me.' "
Karen started packing in that wartime tradition as old as mothers and sons. She packed a lot of the packaged tuna, not the canned.
She happened to mention her hungry son to people she works with at Greenwood Credit Union, where she is a teller and has worked for 30 years.
Pounds and pounds of food started showing up amid the daily business of loans and deposits and withdrawals. Marianne Barao, the branch manager, said it could be done, the credit union could become the place where people help feed hungry Marines who are risking their lives on a skimpy diet.
"We sent out 51 pounds this week," says Karen. "There are customers coming in saying, 'What do you need?' "
The credit union is paying the cost of packing and shipping.
Any packaged food is welcome. So are baby wipes because showers are even rarer than a full meal. And foot powder.
Nick Andoscia, who is 22, is due to come home later this year. He wants to study criminal justice, his mother says, then go to work for a fire or police department.
But for the next few months he will be on patrol in western Iraq, dealing with the heat and the dirt and the danger.
The last thing he should have to worry about is an empty stomach. The last thing he should have to do is approach Iraqis and ask for food.
You have to wonder what the gracious hosts must think when a fighting man from the richest country on earth comes to their door in search of something to eat.
(Bob Kerr is a columnist for The Providence Journal. E-mail bkerr(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
An all too familiar dirge emanated from the bagpipes at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, Calif., last week as the coffin of Army Sergeant Joseph Blanco, who died under enemy fire in Taji, Iraq, was borne past two rows of mourners holding American flags. Blanco's pallbearers wore neatly pressed military greens. But the onlookers were hardly regulation: outfitted in leather jackets, do-rags and multiple tattoos, with nicknames like Fugdaboutit and Fat Bob, wearing patches with legends like HEAVILY MEDICATED FOR YOUR PROTECTION, they had roared in earlier by the dozens on Harleys, Hondas and more Harleys, from as near as Palm Springs, Calif., and as far as Phoenix, Ariz., to take their places as honored guests of the bereaved--and as part of an eccentric but eloquent expression of national grief over sons and daughters who gave their lives in war.
They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and in a culture in which a 24-hour news cycle and habitual political spin can make the most earnest public gesture seem tired or canned, they appear to be the real thing: a spontaneous mass movement. They formed as a response to the Rev. Fred Phelps, an attention-crazed fanatic based in Topeka, Kans., who has logged 15 years as a kind of paleo-fundamentalist, gay-baiting performance artist. Last spring Phelps grabbed the already troubling line, taken by preachers such as Pat Robertson, that disasters like 9/11 were God's punishment for American sins, and spun it past the boundary of the outrageous by having his followers crash military funerals with signs like GOD LOVES IEDS (improvised explosive devices) and scream to grieving parents that their children were in hell as divine punishment for what Phelps calls the nation's "enabling" and "harboring" of homosexuals.
After more than a dozen such episodes, five American Legion Riders from Kansas decided last August that they had had enough. At subsequent funerals, they gathered fellow bikers to form a human shield between Phelps' disciples and the bereaved, blocking the protesters' signs with flags and occasionally revving their engines to drown out the insults. Soon the riders outgrew the protesters. Phelps' church has only about 75 members, mostly his relatives. But the newly named Patriot Guard expanded exponentially and today claims 28,000 bikers and supporters. They attend every single military funeral for which the family gives permission. "We joined because of Fred Phelps, but now the whole focus is off Fred Phelps," says California state coordinator Cheryl Egan. "It's more about the troop who just gave his or her life."
David Weikel is certainly thankful that the Patriot Guard spoke up. He was warned that Phelps' supporters might show up at his son Ian's funeral in Colorado Springs. "What a hateful group of people," says Weikel, a former pastor. In the end, Phelps' people were absent, but the bikers showed up. "I love them deeply," Weikel says, adding a sentiment not often applied to the hog-and-leathers set: "I appreciate their ministry in my life."
With the congressional elections 6 months away, is it time for us to stop criticizing Democrats?
...
It's an interesting question. Is it time to sit back and shut up and hold our tongue?
I think at some point we can hurt ourselves by helping create a public perception that our party has no message and is spineless. Then again, it's not like they need much help creating that perception - chicken and egg.
And the larger question is whether the party will ever change if we don't publicly hold it accountable. Do we really want the same folks doing the same things (not holding Bush accountable, voting for every war resolution they can get their hands on) once they become the majority in Congress?
...
...Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask. Because he is representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country...
...But in this country, anyone can insult the president of the United States. Colbert just did it, and he will not suffer any consequence at all. He knew that going in...
...In Washington he was playing to a different crowd, and he failed dismally in the funny person's most solemn obligation: to use absurdity or contrast or hyperbole to elucidate -- to make people see things a little bit differently. He had a chance to tell the president and much of important (and self-important) Washington things it would have been good for them to hear. But he was, like much of the blogosphere itself, telling like-minded people what they already know and alienating all the others...
As expressed by one Master-Sergeant in the Iraqi military, "I'll even settle for Afghanistan, anything to get out of this meshuganah place." One corporal even asked if there was a U.S. military base in Buffalo, N.Y., stating that he had repeatedly "heard from your Mr.Tim Russert that it is a modern-day Shangri-La."
Although Muslim men are, of course, literally medieval about traditional gender roles, every recruit who went on record said that in order to escape their current living hell, they'd be willing to serve with women, gays, and if necessary, even RuPaul.
Under the "Baker Plan," all Iraqi military personnel will be assigned border-protection duty in the familiar climate of the southern United States, and the "Minutemen," who are currently handling those duties, will be dispatched to Iraq, where their lifespans will then closely mirror their nickname.
As part of this new strategy, President Bush announced today that in an effort to bolster the morale of U.S. troops remaining in Iraq permanently, he was immediately appointing Stephen Colbert as the resident comedian of Karbala.
Dec. 16, 2005, is a day that will live in infamy in the Hall of Fame of Unintended Republican Consequences.
A bunch of the guys were just noodling around in the House of Representatives in Washington, see, kind of fooling around with the idea that they might get some traction out of immigration as a hot-button issue. The old hot buttons have kind of cooled off here lately, with people up in arms about Iraq, oil, health insurance and all this other stuff that makes the boys say, "Who me?" Where's a good divisive social issue when you need one? They weren't that far wrong - some variation on the race card usually works.
Trouble is, they played the card, tried to make every illegal worker in the country a felon and woke up the Sleeping Brown Giant, instead.
Who knew? Unions, organizers, community workers, priests and preachers, and Lord knows the Democrats, have been trying to wake the Sleeping Giant for years. That it would happen some day was an article of faith when I first started watching Texas politics 40 years ago. Who knew all it would take was one softly played, very ugly, very nasty little piece of racial political pandering. And there was the Giant, out on the streets in the millions. For those who know the Latin emphasis on respect and dignity, maybe it’s not such a surprise after all.
The Waking Giant clearly makes a good part of Anglo America uncomfortable - I suppose if the R's really want to push racial division, it will work and we can commit some monumental folly like building a fence on the border. But as a founding member of the Anti-Hypocrisy on Border Issues Party, I'm ready to bet Republican money, which after all hires the illegal workers, has too much at stake to let their party go off on a racist toot. You can let the right-wing radio commentators bloviate all they want, to get the young jackboots all stirred up, but it's still Wal-Mart hiring these people. Believe me, their employers are big Republican donors.
It does not take great economic acumen to realize that Mexico was damaged by NAFTA, that the surge in immigration has been caused by our own selfish and stupid trade policies, which benefit few of us, also. And domestic policies, I might add. The conservatives have been preaching this Me First stuff as though life were a race to the finish and the only object is to pick up as much money as you can. It doesn't work - not even if you wind up with a lot of toys. As another noted economist said, we are becoming a nation of private opulence and public squalor.
Is selfish and stupid working out so well for us?
Coming soon -- the Potemkin Congress.
Politicians are trying very hard to convince us that they have not been cowering before the mighty oil companies for just ever. They are talking bravely of taxing windfall profits, and prohibiting accounting tricks that keep profits high, and -- well, a bunch of stuff that will never happen. Bill Frist is talking about giving each of us $100 just for being ourselves. He feels our pain. Well, no, he doesn't, but he's hired someone to feel our pain.
Is there a more transparent trick than "Vote for me and I'll give you $100"? It's beyond satire. What's next? Free orgasms? Wait, they're already free. The system works.
One might say to the American people: What did you expect? You voted for a guy who made his money in the oil business. (What he did in the oil business: not so clear.) You voted for a vice president who set energy policy by having secret meetings with oil company executives. You were in favor of a war that was fought to guarantee our oil supply. You cheered when economy-stimulating tax cuts were enacted. You are now paying $3 a gallon at the pump in what Daniel Yergin has called "the permanent shortage," and you feel betrayed? This was an act between consenting adults; it's a little late for buyer's remorse.
Four percent of the world's population; 25 per cent of the energy use -- that's us. And, maddeningly enough, the world wants to catch up. It wants big cars and bright lights and the wonders of exurban commuting. We've led the way in excess, and now we're going to lead the world in regret. And no one will feel sorry for us, because we've pillaged and invaded and belittled and overthrown and generally wiped our feet on the rest of the world. I know, I know, it wasn't you. But it's your problem anyway; it's your karma anyway.
WRIGHT PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio - More than 120 former prisoners from the Vietnam War and their families will help the Air Force Reserve's 445th Airlift Wing retire the Air Force's last C-141, the "Hanoi Taxi" during festivities May 5-6.
The C-141 "Hanoi Taxi" was the first aircraft to arrive in Hanoi in February 1973 to pick up the POWs returning to the United States. The "Hanoi Taxi" was one of several aircraft involved in repatriating more than 500 American POWs held by the North Vietnamese.
...
...
As for Republicans willing to settle for this legislative fig leaf, they ought to listen to Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.). "I happen to believe we are losing our moral authority to lead this place," Mr. Shays said on the House floor last week.
...
The Bush administration forecasts massive disruptions if bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza arises in the United States. A response plan scheduled to be released at the White House on Wednesday warns employers that as much as 40 percent of the work force could be off the job and says every segment of society must prepare.
...
The right wing is up in arms over a new version of the Star-Spangled Banner written in Spanish. Last week President Bush stated that "the national anthem ought to be sung in English." Yesterday Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a resolution requiring the Star-Spangled banner to be sung only in English:
That flag and that song are a part of our history and our national identity. - That's why in 1931 Congress declared the Star-Spangled Banner our national anthem. That's why we should always sing it in our common language, English.
In his press release, Alexander said the Star-Spangled Banner has "never before…been rendered in another language."
But in 1919, the U.S. Bureau of Education commissioned a Spanish-language version of "The Star Spangled Banner." The State Department's website also features four separate versions of the anthem in Spanish.
It appears xenophobia isn't part of the American tradition.
Stephen Colbert's brilliant performance unplugged the Bush myth machine -- and left the clueless D.C. press corps gaping.
It's not just that Colbert's jokes were hitting their mark. We already know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that the generals hate Rumsfeld or that Fox News lists to the right. Those cracks are old and boring. What Colbert did was expose the whole official, patriotic, right-wing, press-bashing discourse as a sham, as more "truthiness" than truth.
So it's no wonder that those journalists at the dinner seemed so uneasy in their seats. They had put on their tuxes to rub shoulders with the president. They were looking forward to spotting Valerie Plame and "American Idol's" Ace Young at the Bloomberg party. They invited Colbert to speak for levity, not because they wanted to be criticized. As a tribe, we journalists are all, at heart, creatures of this silly conversation. We trade in talking points and consultant-speak. We too often depend on empty language for our daily bread, and -- worse -- we sometimes mistake it for reality. Colbert was attacking us as well.
Just don't expect him to be invited back to the correspondents dinner.
As men live longer, the female advantage in longevity is declining, so wives are spending more of their final years with husbands. Happy reactions: 1) Women won't be as lonely. 2) Women stay healthier and live longer if their husbands are still around. 3) Women also do better financially. Cynical reactions: 1) Keeping a husband only marginally improves a woman's longevity. 2) The only reason women with husbands do better financially is that men have more pensions and Social Security; these sexist advantages are eroding. 3) Men are lazy, thoughtless, burdensome slobs; a woman is better off with a real helper or companion. (For Human Nature's takes on the costs and benefits of improving longevity, click here and here.)
Marriage lowers everyone's risk of death, Professor Lee said, but the benefits go mostly to men; women lower their risk only slightly by marrying. Similarly, a man's risk of death increases sharply after the death of a spouse; a wife's does only negligibly.
"Women are very helpful for men," he said. "Men are not very helpful for women as spouses."
Women not only do fine despite a spouse's death, they may even do better.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) threw down the gauntlet just moments ago, introducing the Network Neutrality Act of 2006 [full text HERE], which "[offers a] choice between favoring the broadband designs of a small handful of very large companies, and safeguarding the dreams of thousands of inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. This legislation is designed to save the Internet and thwart those who seek to fundamentally and detrimentally alter the Internet as we know it."
During last week's debate on the earlier Markey amendment, calling on the House Energy & Commerce Committee to protect Internet freedom, the more the issue came to light, the more votes neutrality received.
This is that rare bird, a black and white issue, with large companies on one side and the vast majority of America on the other. Politicians will only oppose network neutrality so long as it stays in the darkest corners of debate.
...
I fear no one on the right. Ever. All they are capable of is wavering between ham-fisted brutality and self-righteous pecksniffery. They are outrageously pretentious and their bubbles so easily burst. I think it emboldens the entire left side of the blogosphere, knowing that those on the right are completely incapable of coming back at them with anything other than unimpressive, humorless thuggery.
...
It seems like only yesterday that the country was enthralled with the president in his sexy flightsuit. Women were swooning, manly GOP men were commenting enviously on his package. But there were none so awestruck by the sheer, testosterone glory of Bush's codpiece as Tweety:
...
LIKE the hand that suddenly pops out of the grave at the end of "Carrie," the past keeps coming back to haunt the Bush White House. Last week was no exception. No sooner did the Great Decider introduce the Fox News showman anointed to repackage the same old bad decisions than the spotlight shifted back to Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury room, where Karl Rove testified for a fifth time. Nightfall brought the release of an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll with its record-low numbers for a lame-duck president with a thousand days to go and no way out.
The demons that keep rising up from the past to grab Mr. Bush are the fictional W.M.D. he wielded to take us into Iraq. They stalk him as relentlessly as Banquo's ghost did Macbeth. From that original sin, all else flows. Mr. Rove wouldn't be in jeopardy if the White House hadn't hatched a clumsy plot to cover up its fictions. Mr. Bush's poll numbers wouldn't be in the toilet if American blood was not being spilled daily because of his fictions. By recruiting a practiced Fox News performer to better spin this history, the White House reveals that it has learned nothing. Made-for-TV propaganda propelled the Bush presidency into its quagmire in the first place. At this late date only the truth, the whole and nothing but, can set it free.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research. [my em]
...
...
As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and left immediately.
...