Blood for Oil
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 09:10 - Category: Unfiled ;
This is not a satire.
Archive for December 17th, 2005
From the fine folks at AmericaBlog
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:55 - Category: Government spying ;
You know it’s big trouble for the Bush team when W. devotes his weekly radio address to the domestic spying scandal.This President thinks he is above the law of the US. That’s what happens when you have a leader who thinks he has a mandate from a higher power.
That pesky constitution and the U.S. code just get in his way. His fear-mongering rhetoric should not and cannot save him this time. He thinks there will be no repercussions.
He has to be proven wrong.
I’ll bet he does
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:54 - Category: Unfiled ;
Ralph Reed regrets taking Abramoff money
Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed says he regrets funding an antigambling campaign with money from indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s casino-owning clients.Reed’s ties to the lobbyist have become campaign fodder as he runs for lieutenant governor. Reed also angered religious groups when it was revealed that his work was funded by tribes that were trying to stifle would-be competitors.
For some reason, the faithful were upset that Reed took millions from Abramoff to stop a casino (the money came from one tribe trying to stop another from building a casino) thinking this makes Reed a hypocritical sleazebag since he piously pretended to oppose gambling and gambling money. He may really regret this because apparently he didn’t register as a lobbyist when he took the money.
Sen. Burns to return Abramoff-linked money
Retreating under fire, Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana will return donations that he received from indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates.
Clear Channel station sells newsroom name to bank
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:53 - Category: Unfiled ;
From RockRap, who comments on a Clear Channel radio station selling naming rights to their newsroom.
The specific and only reason the Clear Channel broadcast empire exists is because of the Telecom Bill pushed and passed by the Clinton/Gore administration. This latest outrage is just the logical and latest extension of the Democratic Party’s pro-corporate policies.
"In a move that has drawn fire from some journalism organizations, a Wisconsin radio station has agreed to join the ranks of everything from college football bowl games to public school scoreboards by selling the naming rights of its newsroom to a business.
Beginning Jan. 1, the WIBA-FM newsroom in Madison, Wis., will become known as the Amcore Bank News Center. The station is one of more than 1,200 owned by the nation’s largest radio broadcaster, San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications."
If this "newsroom" discovers, say, an auditing scandal at the bank, will they investigate it like any other story? Well, of course they won’t.
But wait, perhaps this could be a start of a new trend. Possibilities abound. The Jack Abramoff School of Investigative Journalism? The Prison Reform Institute, with major funding by the CIA?
WTO protests: Water a focus
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:52 - Category: Water ;
Hong Kong — Activists gathered here say that no issue highlights the tension between the human values they advocate and the economic logic of the legion of corporate globalizers that have descended on this city more clearly than water.
Water is viewed as one of the last "profit centers" by the international financial institutions and trade can impact whether it becomes a commodity or stays in public hands — 90 percent of the world’s water supplies remain in the public trust. Most notably water’s on the table with the privatization of municipal water systems being aggressively pushed under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), a wide-ranging treaty that covers a host of services, both public and private.
Do you trust the Enrons of the world to manage your water? I didn’t think so…
Rendition: On Planet Jack and Planet Tony…
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:52 - Category: Torture ;
Both Tony Blair and Jack Straw have had more to say [but little to add] on the unfolding story of Extraordinary Rendition.
On Planet Jack, concerns about Rendition Torture and ‘Black Sites’ are nothing more than paranoid fantasy
On Planet Tony, concerns about the story that is unfolding are rejected as ‘absurd’
Their rendition of their lies and evasion is extraordinary indeed. They sound like Dubya and Condi, don’t they?
Ralphs indicted in hiring dispute
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:51 - Category: Unfiled ;
Ralph’s is the biggest grocery chain in California.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted the Ralphs grocery chainRalphs used fake names and Social Security numbers and falsified thousands of employee records sent to various government agencies to conceal the rehiring effort, the 53-count indictment alleged. The violations reflected "tacit approval, if not encouragement, by Ralphs’ senior management," the indictment alleged.
If convicted on all counts, Ralphs and Kroger could face fines totaling more than $100 million, as well as back pay and restitution for Ralphs workers and their union.
Thursday, alleging that store managers violated federal laws by secretly rehiring nearly 1,000 locked-out workers during the bitter Southern California supermarket labor dispute two years ago.
