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What the hell? 
Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed by George Knapp
Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
(...)
The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. [empahsis added] Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate. [more]
These people should be in jail
James Baker's Double Life by Naomi Klein
When President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker III as his envoy on Iraq's debt on December 5, 2003, he called Baker's job "a noble mission." At the time, there was widespread concern about whether Baker's extensive business dealings in the Middle East would compromise that mission, which is to meet with heads of state and persuade them to forgive the debts owed to them by Iraq. Of particular concern was his relationship with merchant bank and defense contractor the Carlyle Group, where Baker is senior counselor and an equity partner with an estimated $180 million stake.
Until now, there has been no concrete evidence that Baker's loyalties are split, or that his power as Special Presidential Envoy--an unpaid position--has been used to benefit any of his corporate clients or employers. But according to documents obtained by The Nation, that is precisely what has happened. Carlyle has sought to secure an extraordinary $1 billion investment from the Kuwaiti government, with Baker's influence as debt envoy being used as a crucial lever.
The secret deal involves a complex transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of Kuwait, would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group, the Albright Group (headed by another former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright) and several other well-connected firms. Under the deal, the government of Kuwait would also give the consortium $2 billion up front to invest in a private equity fund devised by the consortium, with half of it going to Carlyle.
The Nation has obtained a copy of the confidential sixty-five-page "Proposal to Assist the Government of Kuwait in Protecting and Realizing Claims Against Iraq," sent in January from the consortium to Kuwait's foreign ministry, as well as letters back and forth between the two parties. In a letter dated August 6, 2004, the consortium informed Kuwait's foreign ministry that the country's unpaid debts from Iraq "are in imminent jeopardy." World opinion is turning in favor of debt forgiveness, another letter warned, as evidenced by "President Bush's appointment...of former Secretary of State James Baker as his envoy to negotiate Iraqi debt relief." The consortium's proposal spells out the threat: Not only is Kuwait unlikely to see any of its $30 billion from Iraq in sovereign debt, but the $27 billion in war reparations that Iraq owes to Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion "may well be a casualty of this U.S. [debt relief] effort."
In the face of this threat, the consortium offers its services. Its roster of former high-level US and European politicians have "personal rapport with the stakeholders in the anticipated negotiations" and are able to "reach key decision-makers in the United Nations and in key capitals," the proposal states. If Kuwait agrees to transfer the debts to the consortium's foundation, the consortium will use these personal connections to persuade world leaders that Iraq must "maximize" its debt payments to Kuwait, which would be able to collect the money after ten to fifteen years. And the more the consortium gets Iraq to pay during that period, the more Kuwait collects, with the consortium taking a 5 percent commission or more. [more]
Very bad
Uh Oh transcribed from a Semour Hersh speech
Seymour Hersh spoke at Berkeley last Friday, October 8th. He told a story about recently receiving a call from an American lieutenant in Iraq who'd just witnessed other American soldiers massacring Iraqis.
I typed up what he said from the Real Video file here. The story begins at about 41:45.
UPDATE: I'm told Hersh has said much the same at other events, including this October 1 appearance on the Diane Rehm Show. I haven't listened to it myself, however.
HERSH: I got a call last week from a soldier -- it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy.
It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary... It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit -- we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody...
They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents."
You read those stories where the Americans, we take a city, we had a combat, a hundred and fifteen insurgents are killed. You read those stories. It's shades of Vietnam again, folks, body counts...
You know what I told him? I said, fella, I said: you've complained to the captain. He knows you think they committed murder. Your troops know their fellow soldiers committed murder. Shut up. Just shut up. Get through your tour and just shut up. You're going to get a bullet in the back. You don't need that. And that's where we are with this war.
(link via atrios)
Tax cuts instead of health care
House Blocks FDA Oversight of Tobacco by Dan Morgan and Helen Dewar
When the Senate voted 78 to 15 in July to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate cigarettes, it seemed that health advocates were on the verge of a major legislative coup.
The Senate amendment was attached to a massive, "must pass" corporate tax bill that Republicans in both houses badly wanted. Supporters strengthened their hand by coupling FDA regulation with a House proposal for a multibillion-dollar buyout of struggling tobacco farmers.
But in the end, a strong-willed group of Republicans in the House outmaneuvered Senate negotiators and pushed through a tax bill that gives corporations billions of dollars in new breaks, and preserves a $10 billion buyout of tobacco farmers, but leaves FDA regulation of cigarettes on the cutting-room floor for this session of Congress.
"We were blocked by a small minority in the House leadership," said Vince Willmore, director of communications for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Some Democratic lawmakers saw the White House's hand in it, as well. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a longtime supporter of FDA regulation, said House Republicans who negotiated with the Senate on a final deal were doing the bidding of the president. "I lay this right at President Bush's door," he said. "He concurred with big tobacco." [more]
Harsh judgement
Think Tank: Iraq War Distracted U.S. by MJark LaVie
The war in Iraq did not damage international terror groups, but instead distracted the United States from confronting other hotbeds of Islamic militancy and actually "created momentum" for many terrorists, a top Israeli security think tank said in a report released Monday.
President Bush has called the war in Iraq an integral part of the war on terrorism, saying that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein hoped to develop unconventional weapons and could have given them to Islamic militants across the world.
But the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said that instead of striking a blow against Islamic extremists, the Iraq war "has created momentum for many terrorist elements, but chiefly al-Qaida and its affiliates."
Jaffee Center director Shai Feldman said the vast amount of money and effort the United States has poured into Iraq has deflected attention and assets from other centers of terrorism, such as Afghanistan.
The concentration of U.S. intelligence assets in Iraq "has to be at the expense of being able to follow strategic dangers in other parts of the world," he said. [more]
Our man in Iraq -- He's Back!
Christopher Allbriton is Back from Holiday! Once again we have an experience reporter in Iraq who is willing to tell the truth.
Greetings. I'm back from my holiday, and now I'm recovering from it. I spent a week in NYC and a week in Beirut, with too little time in each. Beirut was, frankly, more restful, despite a car bomb two blocks from the apartment where I crashed. (What, do I attract these things now?)
(...)
As for Iraq, well, it's pretty much the same as when I left: chaotic, dangerous, reeling from everyday violence that's the new normalcy. The attack on the Sheraton was really nothing unusual -- it gets hit fairly often by rockets. But this time, there were television cameras around and CNN was desperate for footage. Most of us here in the press corps not living in the Palestine or Sheraton hotels were a little amused by the amount of play the attacks got. No one was killed or even seriously hurt, except for that lone, charred palm tree in front of the hotels. It will never give shade again, thanks to those evil-doing tree terrorists.
But I shouldn't make light of it, really. It could have been much worse, and the only reason I can engage in macabre humor with a relatively clear conscience is because it wasn't a very serious attack. The casualties, next time, will probably not be confined to the arboreal variety. And that's no laughing matter.
Man, what has she got in that bag?
From the National Jewish Democratic Council -- Bubbie vs. The GOP
(link via AMERICAblog)
Lack of planning, or criminal recklessness?
Iraqi Nuclear-Related Materials Have Vanished by Irwin Arieff
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq (news - web sites) but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have noticed, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reported on Monday.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings in Iraq have been dismantled. They once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or terror group make nuclear bombs, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs also have been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said.
While some military goods that disappeared from Iraq after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, including missile engines, later turned up in scrap yards in the Middle East and Europe, none of the equipment or material known to the IAEA as potentially useful in making nuclear bombs has turned up yet, ElBaradei said.
The equipment -- including high-precision milling and turning machines and electron-beam welders -- and materials -- such as high-strength aluminum -- were tagged by the IAEA years ago, as part of the watchdog agency's shutdown of Iraq's nuclear program. U.N. inspectors then monitored the sites until their evacuation from Iraq just before the war.
The United States barred the inspectors' return after the war, preventing the IAEA from keeping tabs on the equipment and materials up to the present day. [more]
Business as usual
A Tax Bill, Full of Breaks, Passes Senate by Edmund. L. Andrews
After nearly three years of jockeying by legions of business groups, the Senate passed a $137 billion corporate tax bill on Monday that gave something to almost everyone.
The 69-to-17 vote, which came after similarly lopsided approval by the House last week, means that the bill will now be sent to President Bush, who has indicated he will sign the measure despite White House concerns that it is overloaded with special-interest provisions.
(...)
"It is the worst example of the influence of special-interest groups I have ever seen," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who denounced a decision to include a $10 billion buyout program for tobacco farmers, but drop a provision that would have put the Food and Drug Administration in charge of regulating tobacco products.
(...)
In another passionate fight, Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, delayed a vote until Monday because House Republicans deleted a $2 billion provision in the Senate bill that would have given tax credits to companies that keep paying salaries of employees who are military reservists but are called up to active duty.
"There is $137 billion in this bill, and the only people who aren't in here are the men and women taking bullets on the front lines," Ms. Landrieu said. "What is someone going to tell me? That we don't have enough money? What is this?"
In the end, the bill contained so many alluring provisions that most Democrats, including even Ms. Landrieu, as well as nearly all Republicans, voted in favor of it. [more]
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