"And believe me -- you can check -- there are four or five different strains of venereal diseases more popular than Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld."

~Paul Begala on CNN

Executives Cash In on War and Oil Bonanza

WASHINGTON - Top oil and defence industry executives in the United States are raking in record personal profits on the backs of the U.S. wars following the terror attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 and sky-high oil prices, two think-tanks said Wednesday.

"CEOs (chief executive officers) in the defense and oil industries have been able to translate war and rising oil prices into personal jackpots," says the new report "Executive Excess 2006," a 60-page study by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy.

The report's authors say U.S. taxpayers are funding much of this bonanza and faulted U.S. political and congressional leaders for not exercising better and more thorough oversight.

"Americans across the political spectrum should be outraged by the sight of executives cashing in on war windfalls," says report co-author Sarah Anderson. "Unfortunately, partisan politics has stopped Congress from effectively overseeing this war contracting free-for-all."

Hawks

During a large-scale protest in downtown Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Mayor Rocky Anderson unleashed perhaps his harshest criticisms yet of President George W. Bush -- just hours before the president was scheduled to arrive in Utah.

"[President Bush] is afraid that we are right, afraid of the truth even to the point of denying it," Anderson said. "Afraid that history will rank [his] as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure."
(snip)
"No more lies... no more wars that triple the value of Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton," the mayor added. "No more lies from Condoleezza Rice... no more lies of incompetence from the Secretary of Defense... no more human torture... no more unconstitutional wiretapping... no more attacks on immigrants, who work so hard in this nation."

Video: Mayor Anderson blasts President Bush
Sky2 Video: Protesters march thru the streets of SLC
Slideshow: Protests and Preparations

The nation's policies would be better conceived, if more Americans were, like Anderson, willing to speak truth to power and demand accountability.

"What I think the president ought to do is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots. One reason why the price is so high is because the price of crude oil has been driven up. OPEC has gotten its supply act together, and it's driving the price, like it did in the past. And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price."

Report: U.S. gave Iran 1st nuclear reactor

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- An irony in the international struggle to get Iran to stop enriching uranium is that the United States gave Iran its first reactor, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The dome-shaped Tehran Research Reactor was given to the country as part of a U.S. Cold War strategy to help the shah, who was also against the Soviet Union. Compounding the irony in today's stand-off is that the U.S. government also supplied Iran with 10 pounds of weapons-grade uranium needed to power the facility, and which is likely still there, the newspaper said.

While the uranium has undoubtedly been processed, its waste remains radioactive and capable of being used in a weapon, the report said.

Under the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. But the U.N. Security Council now claims Iran has failed to prove it is not building weapons, and has demanded Iran stop enrichment by Aug. 31.

Link

Today, Lieberman and Lamont will mark two different anniversaries.

Lieberman will appear with two prominent Republicans, Gov. M. Jodi Rell and U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd, to celebrate last year's reversal of a Pentagon decision to close the Groton submarine base.

Lamont will be a featured speaker at an event in New York City sponsored by MoveOn.org to commemorate efforts to rescue victims of Hurricane Katrina and launch a new book about the effort. Lamont has criticized the Bush administration for its response to the disaster.

Joe Down Low On Ballot

It's Lieberman, I-Conn. for fall ballot
State confirms signatures necessary for November election

HARTFORD, Conn. - U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman has gathered more than the 7,500 signatures needed to secure a spot on the November ballot with a new party, the secretary of the state said Tuesday.

The certification means that Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000 and a presidential candidate in 2004, will run for re-election as part of the Connecticut for Lieberman party against Democrat Ned Lamont and Republican Alan Schlesinger.

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said Lieberman had 7,700 validated signatures. The campaign collected more than 18,500 signatures, but Bysiewicz's office stopped counting when employees determined Lieberman had enough names.

Sucks!

Lieberman and Lamont Tied in Connecticut

Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont are in a statistical tie in the race for United States Senate in Connecticut according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among likely voters in November, 44% say they would vote for Lieberman, 42% say they would vote for Lamont, 3% say they would vote for Alan Schlesinger, and 11% are undecided.

Lieberman leads Lamont 57% to 18% among enrolled Republicans and 48% to 38% among unaffiliated (independent) voters. Lamont leads Lieberman 65% to 30% among enrolled Democrats.

A total of 56% of likely voters have a favorable opinion of Lieberman and 41% have an unfavorable opinion of Lieberman. A total of 47% of likely voters have a favorable opinion of Lamont and 34% have an unfavorable opinion of Lamont.

Overall, 9% of likely voters have favorable opinions of both Lieberman and Lamont. Of this group, Lieberman leads Lamont 68% to 32%. Of the remaining 91% of likely voters, Lieberman and Lamont are tied at 44% each. Also of the remaining 91% of likely voters, 46% have a favorable opinion of Lieberman and 51% have an unfavorable opinion of Lieberman, and 42% have a favorable opinion of Lamont and 40% have an unfavorable opinion of Lamont.

Lieberman SUCKS!

"Those who heralded the decision not to give law enforcement the tools necessary to protect the American people just simply don't see the world the way we do," he said.

And he chided political opponents for not sharing his vision of how domestic security should be ensured.
LINK

"(prior to 9/11/2001) The feds had supported after-school programs. They had supported placing more police officers in crime hot spots in major cities. These federal efforts were reduced," he said.
~snip~
Smaller cities with populations of more than 500,000 are raising the alarm, posting an 8.3 percent rise in violent crime in 2005. Nationwide, the murder rate rose 5 percent -- the biggest rise in a single year since 1991.

After dramatic declines in murder rates in the 1990s, some cities dropped programs that emphasized prevention and controls on the spread of guns, often citing budget cuts
~snip~
"The Bush administration has scaled back funding for federal cops program," said Jens Ludwig, a criminal justice expert at Georgetown University. "From 1993 to 2000 we saw an impressive run-up in the number of law enforcement people patrolling against crime. That has really slowed down."
LINK

(click on picture for video)

Rough transcript: "I made my position clear..... about this war on terror....I uh eh and by the way the enemy made their position clear yet again when they.... when... wh wh wh... when um.... when we were able to (sigh) stop 'em."

The Bush administration has begun designating as secret some information that the government long provided even to its enemy the former Soviet Union: the numbers of strategic weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

."It would be difficult to find more dramatic examples of unjustifiable secrecy than these decisions to classify the numbers of U.S. strategic weapons," wrote William Burr, a senior analyst at the archive who compiled the report. " . . . The Pentagon is now trying to keep secret numbers of strategic weapons that have never been classified before."
LINK

Facing Senator Joseph I. Lieberman's independent candidacy, Republican officials at the state and national level have made the extraordinary decision to abandon their official candidate, and some are actively working to help Mr. Lieberman win in November.

Despite Mr. Lieberman's position that he will continue to caucus with Democrats if re-elected, all three Republican Congressional candidates in Connecticut have praised Mr. Lieberman and have not endorsed the party's nominee, Alan Schlesinger. An independent group with Republican ties is raising money for Mr. Lieberman, who has been a strong supporter of President Bush on the Iraq war.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, while saying he would support the Republican nominee, is not planning to campaign for him, and even allowed two of his aides to consult with the Lieberman camp before the Aug. 8 Democratic primary. And Newt Gingrich, the Republican who once served as House speaker, has endorsed Mr. Lieberman's candidacy.

While some Republicans are quietly rooting for his Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont, because they feel he would be such a polarizing liberal target, many leading Republicans say it would serve the party better to have a centrist like Mr. Lieberman remain in office, particularly after being spurned by his own party.

More

(Emphasis mine.)