Hillary's Op-Ed in the WSJ

2008-08-06T16:47:00.001-07:00

No Crisis Is Immune
From Exploitation
Under Bush
By HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
August 6, 2008; Page A15

Tucked away on the Cayman Islands sits Ugland House, an unassuming, nondescript building of modest scale and size. However, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), this five-story office building is home to more than 18,000 corporate entities, nearly half of which have U.S. ties.

In the past few years, the number of corporations flocking to places like the Cayman Islands to evade U.S. taxes has exploded. One of these companies, former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, has used offshore tax havens to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxes. To no one's surprise, instead of cracking down on KBR, the Bush administration has rewarded the company in April of this year with a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq.

There appears to be no crisis, tragedy or disaster immune from exploitation under the Bush administration. The examples of the waste, fraud and abuse are legion -- from KBR performing shoddy electrical work in Iraq that has resulted in the electrocution of our military personnel according to Pentagon and Congressional investigators, to the firing of an Army official who dared to refuse a $1 billion payout for questionable charges to the same company. In another scam, the Pentagon awarded a $300 million contract to AEY, Inc., a company run by a 22-year-old who fulfilled an ammunition deal in Afghanistan by supplying rotting Chinese-made munitions to our allies.

But the fraud and waste are not limited to the war. In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, for example, FEMA awarded a contract worth more than $500 million for trailers to serve as temporary housing. The contractor, Gulf Stream, collected all of its money even though they knew at the time that its trailers were contaminated with formaldehyde.

While touting fiscal responsibility, President Bush and his administration have lined the pockets of political cronies like Halliburton and Blackwater. While calling for earmark reform, the president has allowed no-bid and questionable contracting throughout the federal government to dwarf earmark spending by a 10-to-1 ratio.

If we're going to get serious about putting our nation's fiscal house in order, let's talk about putting an end to billions in no-bid contract awards to unaccountable contractors. Let's talk about the number of lucrative contracts and bonuses being paid for duties never performed, promises never fulfilled, and contracts falsely described as complete. And let's talk about reforming the federal contracting system so that we can take on the real waste, fraud and abuse in our federal government.

I've proposed a comprehensive overhaul to root out corruption in no-bid contracts and other shady deals. Reforms must include the following:

- Instead of rewarding companies that exploit tax shelters and incorporate in tax havens, let's ban the federal government from contracting with companies that hide profits offshore.

- We should put in place safeguards so that contracts are awarded to responsible companies that abide by the law and complete the work they're hired to do.

- Let's put a stop to the disgraceful practice of giving bonuses to contractors for work never performed, which has been allowed to happen in Iraq and throughout the federal government according to the GAO and inspectors general.

- We need to increase transparency and competition in the contracting system, and to stop the ideological privatization of critical governmental functions.

In 1941, as the U.S. mobilized and entered World War II, then Sen. Harry Truman proposed and chaired the Senate Special Committee to investigate the National Defense Program. Over the course of three years, Truman set about investigating a president of his own party in order to discover and eliminate wasteful and fraudulent spending. By some estimates, the "Truman Committee" saved the American people some $15 billion -- more than $165 billion in today's dollars.

Truman took on the war profiteers because he understood that when the lives of Americans hang in the balance, we cannot afford to misuse even a single dollar. In the Democratic Congress, we've proposed a new Truman Committee to address the waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan that has already taken place, a proposal stymied by the president and his allies. And my proposal would prevent waste, fraud and abuse in future contracting.

Of course, we need far more than a Truman Committee. We need the Truman spirit in the White House, where the buck finally stops.

Dedicated to My Dad, Who Rode the Last Crest of American Prosperity

2008-08-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

The economic story of my generation:

Inequality on this scale is bad for many reasons but it is also bad for the economy. The wealthy devote a smaller percentage of their earnings to buying things than the rest of us because, after all, they’re rich. They already have most of what they want. Instead of buying, the very wealthy are more likely to invest their earnings wherever around the world they can get the highest return.

This underlying earnings problem has been masked for years as middle- and lower-income Americans found means to live beyond their paychecks. But they have now run out of such coping mechanisms. As I've noted elsewhere, the first coping mechanism was to send more women into paid work. Most women streamed into the work force in the 1970s less because new professional opportunities opened up to them than because they had to prop up family incomes. The percentage of American working mothers with school-age children has almost doubled since 1970 — to more than 70 percent. But there’s a limit to how many mothers can maintain paying jobs.

So Americans turned to a second way of spending beyond their hourly wages. They worked more hours. The typical American now works more each year than he or she did three decades ago. Americans became veritable workaholics, putting in 350 more hours a year than the average European, more even than the notoriously industrious Japanese.

But there’s also a limit to how many hours Americans can put into work, so Americans turned to a third coping mechanism. They began to borrow. With housing prices rising briskly through the 1990s and even faster from 2002 to 2006, they turned their homes into piggy banks by refinancing home mortgages and taking out home-equity loans. But this third strategy also had a built-in limit. And now, with the bursting of the housing bubble, the piggy banks are closing. Americans are reaching the end of their ability to borrow and lenders have reached the end of their capacity to lend. Credit-card debt, meanwhile, has reached dangerous proportions. Banks are now pulling back.

As a result, typical Americans have run out of coping mechanisms to keep up their standard of living. That means there's not enough purhasing power in the economy to buy all the goods and services it's producing. We’re finally reaping the whirlwind of widening inequality and ever more concentrated wealth.

from Robert Reich

Get Your War On - ANIMATED!!

2008-08-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

"What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?"

2008-07-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely the tide of justice comes in.

Justice Officials Repeatedly Broke Law on Hiring, Report Says

Excerpt:

Goodling passed over hundreds of qualified applicants and squashed the promotions of others after deeming candidates insufficiently loyal to the Republican party, said investigators, who interviewed 85 people and received information from 300 other job seekers at Justice. Sampson developed a system to screen immigration judge candidates based on improper political considerations and routinely took recommendations from the White House Office of Political Affairs and Presidential Personnel, the report said.

Goodling regularly asked candidates for career jobs: "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?" the report said. One former Justice Department official told investigators she had complained that Goodling was asking interviewees for their views on abortion, according to the report.

In one case, Goodling refused to extend the temporary assignment of a prosecutor because of her "perception of the [lawyer's] sexual orientation," according to the report.

New term: E. coli conservatism

2008-07-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

What's clear, though, is that imports of agricultural products have increased by 78% since 1973, but inspections of those products have decreased by 78% over the same period, according to the Coalition for a Stronger FDA, whose membership includes former chiefs of the Department of Health and Human Services, of which the FDA is a part.That's a problem because the FDA itself says pesticide violations or infectious disease occur three times more often in imported foods than in domestic foods. In 1991, there were 1.5 inspections for each $1 million worth of imported agriculture commodities; in 2006 there were only 0.4.

Please read the rest of the LA Times opinion piece by Eric Lotke at:

Downsizing government to death

Talk to the Invisible Hand

2008-07-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

The awesome, terrible beauty of Mother Market:

Petition Fraud in Arizona

2008-07-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

A national anti-affirmative action group is raising over $1 million in Arizona in order to hire clueless surrogates to fraudulenty collect signatures for a petition to change the Arizona constitution.

Petition Fraud in Arizona

I've met the attorney leading the fight against this. She is truly amazing and an inspiration. She has done Arizona a great service by bringing her small but committed group to help uncover the corruption going on here. Please give her group, BAMN, support!

Universal Healthcare for Women

2008-07-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I'll get around to writing more about this later, but here's the idea:
Universal Healthcare too big of a pill to swallow for the U.S. all at once? Start out with Universal Health insurance for women only.

This has many facets of advantage, both in terms of political feasibility (due to leveraging psyche of those ideologically opposed to universal healthcare) and in terms of righting innate economic barriers due to life cycle issues.

A Mormon democrat not an oxymoron : Hope for Arizona

2008-06-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not Mormon, but here in Arizona, well, we have quite a few. In local races, the Mormon affiliation seems to be very important, if for nothing else, financing. So, I was pleased to see that, first of all, there is a site called:

Mormon Democrats

And then, there is an article to read from Utah State University:
A Mormon democrat not an oxymoron

Taguba Says Bush Committed War Crimes

2008-06-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Um, did I miss this or was it simply not covered in the news? General Taguba was a key player in the Abu Ghraib scandal, as he is the one who wrote the report on it to begin with.

ABC News Blog (not televised) Taguba: Bush Administration Committed War Crimes

USA Today Blog (not published) Taguba: Bush Administration Committed War Crimes

Here's Taguba's Preface to the report. Where is the coverage of some of this stuff???

More...Taguba Calls on Media to Go after Those Who Authorized Torture.

Dodd's Speech Against FISA Bill

2008-06-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Please watch Senator Dodd's speech against the FISA bill from two days ago.

Aware of the Internet and its Traditions

2008-06-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

Flashbacks...
Americans passed on acknowledged technophile Gore at the threshold of the Internet's boom.

McCain does not use a computer.

Time for a Grand Inquest

2008-06-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

I agree with this article that the calculus has changed for whether to pursue indictments of the Administration. What with Hillary out of the race and Barack effusing making peace with the Republicans, and with McCain the GOP candidate, the Dems have NOTHING TO LOSE by pursuing impeachments, etc.

From OurFuture.org:

And there is the rub. According to the leading case on presidential powers, if Bush's extreme assertions of power are not challenged by the Congress, they end up not simply creating new law, they could end up rewriting the Constitution itself. Inaction can alter the Constitutional division of powers by establishing the president's claims as authority that the Congress or the courts may not infringe.

Wealth Condensation

2008-06-13T13:42:00.001-07:00

Today's must read on Economics, from the university of Wikipedia, is on Wealth Condensation. Not always understood by your average citizen, the terms Income and Wealth are measured independently, and while there is an obvious correlation, they are often treated and discussed independently. Interestingly, or suspiciously, Income is discussed much more frequently and statistics on it are more readily available.

With that said, please go on to read Wealth Condensation.

Shame on the New York Times, Gardiner Harris: Bush's FDA Mouthpiece

2008-06-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

The irony here is that it was the NYT that posted the "mouthpiece for the Bush admin" type article and the WSJ that posted the corrective. What's up with that?
Shame on the apparently lazy journalist Gardiner Harris.

(from More Money for Food Safety Is Sought by Gardiner Harris)

WASHINGTON — Two days after announcing a large-scale recall of raw tomatoes, the Bush administration asked Congress on Monday to give the Food and Drug Administration an additional $275 million in next year’s budget to help improve the safety of the nation’s food supply.

“I would like to once again strongly urge Congress to act quickly to enhance the safety of food and medical products,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt in an evening conference call with reporters.

With the added money, the F.D.A. would open offices in China, India and Central America and provide more inspections of food and medical products, Mr. Leavitt said. The agency would also hire another 490 people in addition to hires the agency already planned.

“We’ll be able to expand the total workforce by 1,500 people, or 15 percent growth,” the food and drug commissioner, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, said.

The announcement comes after a series of food and drug safety problems led a panel of outside advisers to the agency to conclude that American lives were in danger because the F.D.A. lacked the money, the staff and the scientific expertise to protect them.

No mention of how disingenuous this move is by Bush's FDA.

At the end of the article we get:

That gap between the administration’s proposals and its ability to pay or plan for them has yawned so wide that in May Dr. von Eschenbach wrote an unusual letter to Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, saying the agency needed an immediate infusion of $275 million beyond the president’s budget request to ensure that imported food, drugs and medical devices were safe.

The president’s original budget request, made in February, asked Congress to provide the agency with an allocated budget for the 2009 fiscal year of $1.77 billion, which included an increase of $50.7 million over the previous year — not enough even to cover increased salary expenses at the agency. The new request for $275 million would come in addition to the earlier request for $50.7 million, Mr. Leavitt said.

At an April hearing, Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, asked Dr. von Eschenbach again and again to state a figure that would allow the agency to inspect imported food and drugs adequately. And again and again, Dr. von Eschenbach refused to give an answer.

“There’s high legislative interest in this matter. That’s gratifying,” Mr. Leavitt said Monday night. “Given that we have a budget on the table, we should get action.”

So here's the WSJ, of all places, where we get the real story, that this move undercuts efforts already underway which are, in fact, being blocked by Bush:
(from Sen Specter Says FDA Can't Even Ask for Money Properly)

Now that the FDA has gotten around to asking for $275 million more from Congress for inspections, the agency got another tongue-lashing from frequent critic Sen. Arlen Specter, who chastised HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt for compounding months of foot-dragging with a dollop of spin.

And continues:

So, the HHS and FDA have asked for the cash. But the way they did it would put FDA on tap to receive the emergency funds in March or April of next year. Specter (R-Penn.) wants it done a lot sooner, WSJ.com reports. “The grave problem with that is that the FDA has become a joke,” Specter told a Judiciary Committee hearing today.

Then there’s the way the FDA has presented its about-face. Lately, von Eschenbach and Leavitt have sounded like they’re the ones champing at the bit for more money while Congress dilly-dallies. “I would like to once again strongly urge Congress to act quickly to enhance the safety of food and medical products,” Leavitt told reporters in a conference call Monday night.

That really set off Specter, who wrote by hand at the bottom of a letter to Levitt: “I am really surprised by your comment quoted in The NY Times today urging Congress to act quickly when the Administration is drastically hindering NECESSARY immediate relief by delaying the funding for 8 or 9 months. The FDA NEEDS this money now to save lives.”

And its great that Arlen Specter is minding the shop, but can't some Dems step up to the plate (or are they just not getting the coverage)?

The WSJ also saw fit to wrap all this up in an article (the above was a blog):

Specter Says Bush Administration
Is Hindering Quick FDA Funding
By JARED A. FAVOLE
June 11, 2008 11:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Arlen Specter said the Bush administration is "drastically hindering" the Food and Drug Administration's ability to quickly get an important boost in funding.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, Sen. Specter said the FDA's request on Monday for an additional $275 million wouldn't give them any money until March or April 2009 "at the earliest."

In a handwritten note on the letter, the Pennsylvania Republican said the "Administration is drastically hindering necessary immediate relief by delaying the funding for eight or nine months." He added, "FDA needs this money now to save lives."

A spokeswoman for Sen. Specter confirmed that he is referring to the Bush administration in the hand-written portion of the letter.

Sen. Specter has been working to get the agency $275 million in the fiscal 2008 supplemental appropriations bill. He said the FDA's request "undermines" the Senate's efforts to get the agency funds on an "expedited basis."

Sen. Specter acknowledged Congress is considering eliminating the FDA funding from the supplemental appropriations bill. If the bill was signed with the FDA funding intact, the FDA would have to receive the money by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

On Monday, while under pressure from recent recalls of imported drugs and other products, the FDA formally requested $275 million from Congress to pay for more inspections.

In mid-May FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach wrote a letter to Sen. Specter suggesting an additional $275 million in the wake of a series of hearings on Capitol Hill over the FDA's handling of the crisis involving contaminated heparin, a blood thinner, from China. Mr. von Eschenbach's letter wasn't a formal request and only represented his professional judgment.

Sen. Specter said in Tuesday's letter that the FDA's recent request shows a lack of urgency on the agency's behalf.

"The 81 deaths due to contaminated heparin and the one suspected death in the ongoing salmonella outbreak show that we cannot wait nine months to give FDA the resources needed to protect the public," Sen. pecter said, according to a copy of the letter.

Contaminated heparin from China has been linked to 81 deaths. Last week, the FDA said it found an additional 11 deaths tied to medical devices that contained heparin. The agency is still trying to determine whether the heparin in those cases was contaminated.

And here a link to Arlen Specter's letter as a PDF

Michelle Obama on Countdown with Keith Olbermann

2008-06-10T23:50:00.001-07:00

Fantastic.

Michelle Obama: Be not afraid

2008-06-10T23:32:00.001-07:00

She's great

Jeremiah Wright Story Clears Away Muslim Myth

2008-06-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

I might have just not been paying attention, but has anyone remarked on how one very good consequence of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story has probably done Obama an invaluable service. There was a whole demographic out there...the ones who, at most, read the headline of the paper on the way to work, or just watch local TV news, who generally don't follow any politics...but might in fact vote... who still thought Obama was a Muslim, and likely were not going to vote for him because of that. And given the way this demographic gets their news, no amount of concerted effort could really disuade them of the notion.

So, does the more we hear about the Rev. Wright story (which pundits say will be brought up again by the GOP) actually help Obama in this regard?

Meanwhile, Paul Krugman is back from vacation!!!

Watching History As It Happens... Scott McClellan to testify

2008-06-10T11:09:00.001-07:00

Could one say that Scott McClellan is this generation's John Dean?

Given Obama Victory, Now Impeachment Makes Sense

2008-06-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

I think the political calculus has changed regarding impeachment, what with Obama now the Democratic candidate. His popularity, based on perceived charisma, is immune to the potential blowback from the sensation caused by impeachment proceedings. Also, given McCain is the GOP candidate, that means the GOP presidential campaign will be boxed into a corner: either McCain is consistent with his complaints back in Bush 2003 or he has to defend Bush 2003.

The reason impeachment is so important, EVEN AT THIS LATE STAGE, is that the precedents set by Nixon were never fully addressed in law, because of the resignation and pardon, and so allowed, years later, for the Bush Administration to take huge strides towards secrecy while skirting any legal processes.

Hillary's Concession Speech Best EVAR!

2008-06-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Truly a classic, truly motivating.

Doesn't Anyone Want to Invest in U.S.?

2008-06-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

America's for sale. Just ask Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. With the U.S. economy in shambles, Paulson just spent four days touring the Middle East, hat in hand, looking for investors to bail us out. Specifically, on Monday, Paulson met with heads of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world's largest "sovereign wealth fund" with roughly $875 billion in assets, and encouraged them to buy American businesses. Mortgaging America by Eric J. Weiner (LA Times Op Ed)

Hillary to Concede Saturday

2008-06-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Howard,

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you -- and everyone who supported me -- a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I'm going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

2008-06-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

Economists for Democrats

Race to the Bottom