Dave Chandler's Earthside.com

What the Bushites REALLY Think

Earthside Comments: The best the Bush press spokesman can come up with is that Bill Bennett's racist remarks were "inappropriate". Don't ever be fooled by these people; while many of the Bushites and radical Republicans may not be old fashioned white-sheet, pointy-hatted bigots, they still harbor genuine prejudice against people of color. That the word "inappropriate" is as tough as they can get betrays their real thinking.

Link: Bennett: Black Abortions Would Lower Crime | Associated Press

The White House on Friday criticized former Education Secretary William Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies. "The president believes the comments were not appropriate," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. Bennett, on his radio show, "Morning in America," was answering a caller's question when he took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up. "But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," said Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues." He went on to call that "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

Link: HUD Chief Foresees a 'Whiter' Big Easy | Washington Times

A Bush Cabinet officer predicted this week that New Orleans likely will never again be a majority black city, and several black officials are outraged. Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

Lost for Bush in Iraq

Earthside Comments: The first story here demonstrates how Bush lost his illegal and immoral war in Iraq. If the so-called constitution gets voted down, chaos will take over. But conversely, if the so-called constitution is approved, an Iranian-allied, Islamic Republic will be empowered. Good going, George. This is where we have come at the cost of 1,933 killed U.S. troops sent to Iraq on Bush's orders. This is what Bush's invasion has accomplished at the cost of thousands and thousands of killed Iraqi civilians. It is no wonder that the military is missing recruiting goals ... the American people are not completely stupid. Who wants to suffer death or permanent physical disablement for Bush's political foolishness? We need to get the hell out of Iraq now, pay reparations to what ever government finally takes power, and chalk-up this disaster to the lying and scheming of the worst presidential and Congressional regime in American history.

Link: Officials Fear Chaos if Iraqis Vote Down the Constitution | New York Times

Senior American officials say they are confident that Iraq's draft constitution will be approved in the referendum to be held Oct. 15, even though Sunni Arabs in Iraq are mobilizing in large numbers to defeat it. In testimony before Congress on Thursday, the senior American military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. of the Army, said the most recent analysis of intelligence from across the country supported the Bush administration's optimistic predictions that the referendum would pass. But if the constitution is defeated, several officials said they feared that Iraq would descend into anarchy. Approval "is critically important," a senior administration official said, "to maintain political momentum. That is the critical thing for holding this whole thing together."

Link: Decline in Iraqi Troops' Readiness Cited | Washington Post

The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, said there are fewer Iraqi battalions at "Level 1" readiness than there were a few months ago. Although Casey said the number of troops and overall readiness of Iraqi security forces have steadily increased in recent months, and that there has not been a "step backwards,"

Link: Army's Recruiting Lowest in Years | Associated Press

The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth. ... The Army has not published official figures yet, but it apparently finished the 12-month counting period that ends Friday with about 73,000 recruits. Its goal was 80,000. A gap of 7,000 enlistees would be the largest - in absolute number as well as in percentage terms - since 1979, according to Army records. The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which are smaller than the regular Army, had even worse results.

A Great New American Movement

Link: The Velvet Revolution

Velvet Revolution is a term coined to describe the peaceful road to change in countries where governments ignored the inalienable rights of the people. A few inspiring Velvet Revolutions occurred in the former Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, and of course, most recently in Ukraine. The citizens of those countries, tired of corruption and arrogant power, joined together by the millions in a sustained campaign of opposition – they demonstrated, boycotted, petitioned, and engaged in strikes until the pillars of power were replaced by the halls of the people. ... VR [Velvet Revolution] will use the lessons learned in civil rights movements worldwide to insure that the policies and laws of the United States respect a rule of law based on the inalienable rights of freedom, liberty, peace and happiness. Tens of millions of Americans have made it very clear recently that they want a government that is tolerant, honest and respectful. Quite simply, we will lead and continue the fight in this great country for Truth, Justice and the American Way. VR is your movement.

Litmus Test for Democrats

Earthside Comments: Two hurricane related issues should be 'good government' litmus tests for the Democrats. (We figure the radical Republicans are too far gone to even consider doing something in the interest of good government.) First is opposition to ANY effort by the Bushites and radical Republicans to further militarize future natural disaster preparedness and relief efforts. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution make it very clear that we are to have a civilian government that is accountable to the people -- the military only answers to 'commanders'. Further intertwining the military inside the nation with our lives and commerce is a further step on the tyranny path we are already walking down. EVERY elected Democrat in Washington, D.C., should be true to the principles of the country and to progressive ideals and oppose vigorously and vociferously any attempt to give the GOPentagon more control of disaster programs. Second, the Democrats should not vote for one more red hot cent for hurricane relief until there is an independent commission to reveiw what went wrong with Katrina preparation and response -- and until there is an independent board to ensure honesty, competitive bidding and accountablity for tax dollars spent to recover from Katrina and Rita. This is simple stuff. In a better America, Republicans and Democrats and Greens could agree on the common sense proposals just mentioned. But in Bush's and Cheney's America, honesty in government is the exception to their rule by cronyism. The burden is on the Democrats here to make sure the right things are done. We'll all be watching.

Link: Bush Urges Shift in Relief Responsibilities | Washington Post

On Sunday, President Bush called on Congress to consider a larger role for U.S. armed forces in responding to natural disasters, as he completed what White House aides called a weekend "fact-finding" mission to determine whether the Pentagon needs more control. "Clearly, in the case of a terrorist attack, that would be the case, but is there a natural disaster -- of a certain size -- that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort?" Bush said after a briefing from military leaders at Randolph Air Force Base here. "That's going to be a very important consideration for Congress to think about." ... Bush is asking Congress to consider a major change, potentially shifting federal responsibility for major natural disasters from the Department of Homeland Security to the nation's top military generals. The Defense Department has been hesitant to take such a role because of sensitivity to the idea of adopting a police presence on U.S. soil and because of strains on the armed forces from the war in Iraq. ... Some skeptics have said Bush's remarks belatedly recognize that his administration and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) bungled in applying the military's existing capabilities to rescue Katrina victims. Rather than creating new laws and authorities, government officials simply need to execute existing plans competently, they said.

Link: Questions Over Hurricane Katrina Contracts | Reuters/New York Times

More than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to clean up after Hurricane Katrina were awarded without bidding or with limited competition, the New York Times reported on Monday. The newspaper, citing government records, said some of the bids are provoking concern among auditors and government officials about the potential for favoritism or abuse. The first detailed tally of commitments from federal agencies since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast four weeks ago shows more than 15 contracts exceed $100 million, including five of $500 million or more. ... Some industry and government officials questioned the costs of debris-removal contracts, saying the Army Corps of Engineers had allowed a rate that was too high, the Times said. Congressional investigators are also looking into the $568 million awarded to AshBritt, a Pompano Beach, Florida company that was a client of the former lobbying firm of Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, the Times said.

Is This Our Future?

Earthside Comments: Few will disagree that what Rochelle Riley describes in this column, the trend towards consolidation and concentration of ... well, everything ... is happening. Whether this is good or not is where the controversy resides. Earthside favors a more populist, small, competitive free market system and a more individualistic-oriented culture. What we are seeing develop under the agenda of the Bush regime is the mega-corporatization of virtually every economic and social aspect of our culture -- from mega-churches with congregations in the thousands, to school districts so encompassing that students are just testing statistics, to a greater concentration of power in the central federal government and military than at any other time in U.S. history. And ... we don't like it.

Link: America Has Become One | Rochelle Riley/Detroit Free Press

Here's where we're headed economically and socially in America. There will be two stores, a department store and a discounter -- probably Macy's and Wal-Mart -- that will compete with a million specialty stores selling each item from those stores or high-end stuff most Americans can't afford. There will be one airline, LMS: Last Man Standing. There will be one TV network, owned by the nation's largest corporation, with 500 partners that show reruns. ... There will be one national network of art museums and no history museums because we will have decided that our pasts don't matter. Corporations will get naming rights to national monuments, because we, after all, will have stopped caring about history. So there will be the Enron George W. Bush Memorial and the Halliburton Dick Cheney Iraq War Memorial. Millions will visit the Burger King Thomas Jefferson Memorial. But not one person will sadly shake their head at the frivolity of it. We can't fight the monolithic, monopolistic one-original-thought trend that we've embraced. The takeovers and consolidations will make us an imploding single entity, one nation under Macy's. But beneath that entity will be a splintering that will take us farther from each other.

Bush Using Hurricanes as Cover for Power Grab

Earthside Comments: These two articles from The Nation will stun you. Here, in the United States of America, using a great natural disaster as an excuse, the Christofascist, neocon tyranny is creating itself along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The fondest dreams of the radical Republicans for centralized government power and for the looting of the national treasury by Bush family cronies is already underway. This is a big and developing story ... we must pay attention. Tryanny loves crisis -- the Bushites have used disaster after disaster to justify their grab for more power and more taxpayer dollars through profiteering. Earthside warned of this before Bush stole the 2000 election -- now it is all coming true.

Link: Purging the Poor | Naomi Klein/The Nation

... I had interviewed New Orleans' top corporate lobbyist, Mark Drennen. As president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., Drennen was in an expansive mood, pumped up by signs from Washington that the corporations he represents--everything from Chevron to Liberty Bank to Coca-Cola--were about to receive a package of tax breaks, subsidies and relaxed regulations so generous it would make the job of a lobbyist virtually obsolete. Listening to Drennen enthuse about the opportunities opened up by the storm, I was struck by his reference to African-Americans in New Orleans as "the minority community." At 67 percent of the population, they are in fact the clear majority, while whites like Drennen make up just 27 percent. It was no doubt a simple verbal slip, but I couldn't help feeling that it was also a glimpse into the desired demographics of the new-and-improved city being imagined by its white elite, one that won't have much room for Nyler or her neighbors who know how to fix houses. "I honestly don't know and I don't think anyone knows how they are going to fit in," Drennen said of the city's unemployed. ... This vision was laid out in uniquely undisguised form during a meeting at the Heritage Foundation's Washington headquarters on September 13. Present were members of the House Republican Study Committee, a caucus of more than 100 conservative lawmakers headed by Indiana Congressman Mike Pence. The group compiled a list of thirty-two "Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane Katrina and High Gas Prices," including school vouchers, repealing environmental regulations and "drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." Admittedly, it seems farfetched that these would be adopted as relief for the needy victims of an eviscerated public sector. Until you read the first three items: "Automatically suspend Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws in disaster areas"; "Make the entire affected area a flat-tax free-enterprise zone"; and "Make the entire region an economic competitiveness zone (comprehensive tax incentives and waiving of regulations)." All are poised to become law or have already been adopted by presidential decree.

Link: Blackwater Down | Jeremy Scahill/The Nation

The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit. The company known for its private security work guarding senior US diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces "join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on the ground told a different story. Some patrolled the streets in SUVs with tinted windows and the Blackwater logo splashed on the back; others sped around the French Quarter in an unmarked car with no license plates. They congregated on the corner of St. James and Bourbon in front of a bar called 711, where Blackwater was establishing a makeshift headquarters. From the balcony above the bar, several Blackwater guys cleared out what had apparently been someone's apartment. They threw mattresses, clothes, shoes and other household items from the balcony to the street below. They draped an American flag from the balcony's railing. More than a dozen troops from the 82nd Airborne Division stood in formation on the street watching the action. Armed men shuffled in and out of the building as a handful told stories of their past experiences in Iraq. "I worked the security detail of both Bremer and Negroponte," said one of the Blackwater guys, referring to the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and former US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte. Another complained, while talking on his cell phone, that he was getting only $350 a day plus his per diem. "When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?'" he said. He wore his company ID around his neck in a case with the phrase Operation Iraqi Freedom printed on it. ... "This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and possibly illegal." ... A few miles away from the French Quarter, another wealthy New Orleans businessman, James Reiss, who serves in Mayor Ray Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority, brought in some heavy guns to guard the elite gated community of Audubon Place: Israeli mercenaries dressed in black and armed with M-16s. Two Israelis patrolling the gates outside Audubon told me they had served as professional soldiers in the Israeli military, and one boasted of having participated in the invasion of Lebanon. "We have been fighting the Palestinians all day, every day, our whole lives," one of them tells me. "Here in New Orleans, we are not guarding from terrorists." Then, tapping on his machine gun, he says, "Most Americans, when they see these things, that's enough to scare them."

Cowardly Democrats

Earthside Comments: The establishment Democratic Party is so cowardly, so spineless that even when as many as 63 percent of Americans now support full or partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, they will not publically support the Peace Movement in this country. As bad as Bush is, one of the great enablers for the policies and decisions of the 'Master of Disaster' is the elitist Democratic Party ... because they will not oppose, they will not challenge, they will not stand fast on any matter of principle. They are so afraid that Karl Rove will call them "unpatriotic" -- that they continuously let Bush and his cronies get away with murder (1,912 U.S. troops killed for a lie on the orders of Bush). Until rank-and-file Democrats and progressives cut the apron-strings with the establishment, pro-war, cowardly Democratic Party ... Bush's reign of error will go on. It is up to us to demand change.

Link: Poll: Fewer Than Half Think U.S. Will Win in Iraq | CNN

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Thursday indicated fewer than half of Americans believe the United States will win the Iraq war, and 55 percent of those surveyed said it should speed up withdrawal plans. ... The results followed others this week that found only 32 percent of those interviewed supported President Bush's handling of the war, 63 percent supported a full or partial withdrawal and and 54 percent favored cutting spending on the conflict to pay for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Link: Top Democrats Won't Attend Anti-War Rally in Washington | Knight Ridder Newspapers

"There are a lot of people here who are wondering, where are the Democrats?" said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic House member from Maine who's now the national director of Win Without War, one of several groups that are organizing three days of protests against the war in Washington starting Saturday. "The Democratic Party has an identity crisis on this issue. We need voices. We need leadership," Andrews said. "But fear is driving them." The rally comes at a time when a growing number of Americans want a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, a proposition that both President Bush and many leading Democrats reject.

We Need an 'Intervention'

Earthside Comments: The 'newspaper' that broke the story of Rush Limbaugh's illegal drug addiction, now reports that George W. Bush is boozing it up again. The following link reporting on a speech Bush gave today would tend to back-up this contention. Now, Bush is either so politically desparate that he and his advisors are willing to say anything to try and rescue his poll numbers from oblivion, or, if he really believes this stuff, then an 'intervention' is clearly called for to get him into recovery. Better yet, he and Cheney could just resign and spare us all a whole lot more grief.

Link: Bush Compares Responses to Hurricane, Terrorism | New York Times

Mr. Bush said he had been "thinking a lot" about the comparisons between the response to the attacks in New York and Washington, and the storm devastation. "We look at the destruction caused by Katrina, and our hearts break," he said. Turning the subject to terrorists, he said: "They're the kind of people who look at Katrina and wish they had caused it. We're in a war against these people." In weaving the themes, Mr. Bush said that just as the United States would not let an act of nature blow the nation off course, it would not let the acts of terrorsts drive it out of Iraq. "No matter how many car bombs there are, these terrorists cannot stop the march of freedom in Iraq," he told the luncheon crowd, which include current and former members of his administration and some of his larger campaign donors.

Oil and Iraq

Earthside Comments: With the price of gasoline poised to reach new highs because of Hurricane Rita, we're reminded of another of the reasons for the unprovoked attack on Iraq: oil. Michael Klare once again writes an incisive analysis that demonstrates how this has backfired on the Bush regime ... like all of the other rationales for the war.

Link: Iraq's Missing Sea of Oil | Michael Klare

From all that can be seen, oil production in Iraq is likely to remain depressed for years, no matter how much more blood is shed in its pursuit. It is already evident that American military action will not lead to democracy in Iraq, merely to the division of the country into separate ethnic enclaves, one possibly ruled by Iranian-like ayatollahs; it can now also be said that we will not gain any additional petroleum supplies as a result of all this sacrifice and tragedy. Not only has the use of force to procure Iraqi oil failed to achieve its intended results, it has actually made the situation worse. ... Despite the debacle of Iraq, most senior policymakers appear to retain their blind faith in the efficacy of military force as a tool for securing access to foreign sources of petroleum. This, as Iraq makes painfully clear, is delusional. Yet they persist in risking the lives of young Americans and others in their continued adherence to a failed and immoral strategy. Any attempt to reconstruct American foreign policy on a more rational and ethical basis must, therefore, begin with the repudiation of the use of force in procuring foreign oil and the adoption of a forward-looking energy strategy based on increased conservation and the rapid development of alternative fuels.

Let Iraqis Run Iraq

Earthside Comments: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita ... and we're not paying attention to the deepening disaster in Iraq. But nevertheless, the situation gets worse. One of the big reasons it gets worse is because Iraq is still an occupied land, occupied by foreign powers -- the United States and Britain. We need to demand that this end. Bush and Blair have to be told by the people that the lies have to stop. Both the U.S. and Britain are democracies; that is supposed to mean that the people are in charge ... It is time to exercise our authority and either have these two order the withdrawal of our troops, or we should expect Bush (and Cheney) and Blair to resign.

Link: To Say We Must Stay in Iraq to Save It From Chaos is a Lie | Simon Jenkins/The Guardian

Don't be fooled a second time. They told you Britain must invade Iraq because of its weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong. Now they say British troops must stay in Iraq because otherwise it will collapse into chaos. This second lie is infecting everyone. It is spouted by Labour and Tory opponents of the war and even by the Liberal Democrat spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell. Its axiom is that western soldiers are so competent that, wherever they go, only good can result. It is their duty not to leave Iraq until order is established, infrastructure rebuilt and democracy entrenched. Note the word "until". It hides a bloodstained half century of western self-delusion and arrogance. The white man's burden is still alive and well in the skies over Baghdad (the streets are now too dangerous). Soldiers and civilians may die by the hundred. Money may be squandered by the million. But Tony Blair tells us that only western values enforced by the barrel of a gun can save the hapless Mussulman from his own worst enemy, himself.

Link: Nine Americans Killed in Iraq, Britain Frees Soldiers | AFP

Tension ran high in southern Iraq after British troops freed two undercover soldiers taken hostage by a Shiite militia, as the American death toll in bomb attacks rose to nine over a two-day period. In northern Iraq, four American security agents, including assistant regional security officer Stephen Sullivan, were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a US diplomatic convoy in Mosul on Monday. Four US soldiers were killed the same day in the western town of Ramadi, while a US military policeman died in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the military said. Following clashes with demonstrators who firebombed two armoured cars, British forces stormed a police station in the southern port city of Basra late Monday looking for its two soldiers. The pair were later found and freed from a house where they had been taken from the police jail by militiamen, triggering concern in Britain about possible collusion between the police and the militiamen.

Link: Insurgents 'Inside Iraqi Police' | BBC News

Insurgents have infiltrated Iraq's security services, National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaie has admitted. Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme, he said he had no idea how far the services had been undermined, with problems "in many parts of Iraq".