Friday, September 12, 2003
Shopping around with $87 billion
The $87 billion that President Bush is asking from Congress for the war in Iraq could also pay for a whole buncha other stuff:
$87b Is More Than The Combined Total Of All State Budget Deficits In The United States
$87b Is Rougly The Total Of Two Years Worth Of All U.S. Unemployment Benefits
$87b Is Enough To Pay The 3.3 Million People Who Have Lost Jobs $26,363 Each
$87b Is More Than Double The Total Amount The Government Spends On Homeland Security
$87b Is 7 Times What The Government Spends On Title I For Low-Income Schools
$87b Is 87 Times The Amount The Federal Government Spends On After School Programs
$87b Is More Than 10 Times What The Government Spends On All Environmental Protection
And that's just the headlines . . . the details are at Tom Paine.
posted by chris at 2:15 PM
Soon to be over-used phrase of the year: The Big Snapple
Under a five-year $166 million deal announced yesterday, Snapple, the beverage company that claims its drinks are made from the best stuff on earth, and New York City, which claims to be the capital of the world, are uniting to promote each other. Snapple is now an official beverage of the city.
Most immediately, the venture will give Snapple exclusive rights to place vending machines in the city's 1,200 public schools. And starting on Jan. 1, the deal will extend to other city properties, including office buildings, police stations and even sanitation depots.
In return, Snapple will guarantee to pay the schools at least $8 million a year for five years. Under other parts of the deal, Snapple is expected to pay the city about $13 million a year, based on sales. And it will spend $12 million a year on advertising that also promotes the city.
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As part of the deal, Snapple is developing four new 100 percent juice drinks — Green Apple, Orange Mango, Grape and Fruit Punch — to comply with the city's recent ban of soda, candy and other sugary snacks from school vending machines. Even though Snapple plans to sell 100 percent juice drinks, that does not necessarily mean slimmer waistlines for schoolchildren. Like soft drinks, many fruit juices provide calories from sugar and not much else. And while fruit contains at least some fiber, it is usually lost when the fruit is turned into juice.
To be the Education Department's exclusive vendor, Snapple will pay the city a 30-cent commission on each $1 can of juice or water sold in schools. (Iced tea will not be sold in the schools.) In addition, the company will pay $3 per case sold to support school athletics, for a total of at least $3 million a year. Some of the money will go directly to schools, many of which rely on vending machines to support athletic teams and other programs.
It's a sad, sad day when a city has to have a corporate sponsor just to pay for public education. You'd think schools would be a priority for governments. At least the drinks they're selling in the schools will be 100% fruit juice (unlike their other Snapple products) although that's still a lot of calories in one bottle.
posted by chris at 2:01 PM
USDA admits: "We're fat and we don't move around much"
The Department of Agriculture is proposing dietary advice that for the first time recognizes that a majority of Americans, 64 percent, are overweight and sedentary and need to eat less.
The new recommendations call for most women from 35 to 70 years old, for instance, to eat 1,600 to 1,800 calories a day, and for most men in that age group to eat 2,000 to 2,200 calories. Previously, the recommendation for most such people, then assumed to be active, was about 600 calories more.
"Over all, the message is that people have to eat a lot less than they are currently eating," said Dr. Marion Nestle, chairwoman of the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. "People will be shocked at how little it is."
The proposals, being published today in the Federal Register, will now be subject to a period of public comment. The final version will serve as a basis for a new Food Guide Pyramid.
Public comments - that means you. Tell them what you think. Story here.
posted by chris at 1:40 PM
Remember
Mark Fiore's latest animation is brilliant.
posted by chris at 11:10 AM
The Man in Black
Johnny Cash died this morning of complications from diabetes in Nashville, Tennessee. The only man who could sing a song about busting down a prison to a roomfull of prisoners, twice in a row, and they still didn't burn down the place. The man was incredible.
I still miss someone.
Update: South Knox Bubba remembers the true spirit of Johnny Cash.
posted by chris at 8:43 AM
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Thursday, September 11, 2003
Change of feelings
In the two years since Sept. 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism that deserved the world's sympathy and support has given way to a widespread vision of America as an imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force.
That pretty much sums it up. Immediately following 9/11/01, the world was with us. Never one to fully support the United States, France's newspaper Le Monde even exclaimed "We are all Americans now!" The outpouring of emotion from across the globe was stunning and brought the world together in a profound way. But all that goodwill and empathy has been squandered by heavy-handed tactics and go-it-alone bravado. There was a golden opportunity there and we missed it. I only hope it's not too late to repair the damage.
posted by chris at 3:41 PM
The other 9/11
September 11 1973 was a day of terror and bloodshed in Chile. After months of rising tension, army troops stormed the presidential palace, leaving President Salvador Allende dead and thousands prisoners throughout this previously democratic nation.
Now, on the 30th anniversary of the coup, professors, journalists and citizen activists around the world are continuing to expose the full role of the US government in financing and promoting this bloody coup, which ushered in the 17-year military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet.
Thousands of top secret documents which were declassified over the past five years have now been synthesized in a new book, The Pinochet File, by investigative reporter Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives, a Washington-based investigative centre. "The US created a climate of a coup in Chile, a situation of chaos and agitation," said Kornbluh. "The CIA and state department were worried that the [Chilean] military ... were not ready for a coup."
The top secret documents accumulatively detail the crude workings of Washington during the Cold War. "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup," reads a CIA document from October 1970. "It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [US government] and American hand be well hidden."
Two days after this document was written, top CIA officials proposed a terrorist campaign to stun the Chilean people into accepting a military regime.
"Concur giving tear gas cannisters and gas masks ... working on obtaining machine guns," reads a CIA memo dated October 18 1970.
"Use good officers ... Some low-level overflights of Santiago and bomb drops in areas not likely to cause casualties could have great psychological effect and might swing balance as they have so many times in past in similar circumstances."
Story here.
posted by chris at 1:24 PM
Incarcerated indefinately
The United States wants to hold most of the suspected terrorists at a prison camp in Cuba for the duration of the war on terrorism instead of trying them before military tribunals, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.
Rumsfeld said the 660 or so men held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base are imprisoned not as punishment but "to keep them from going back and fighting again and killing people." He said most would be held until the global war on terrorism is over - a fight that Rumsfeld has said could last years, if not decades.
The defense secretary said he expects some suspects to be tried before military tribunals but prefers that most continue to be imprisoned indefinitely.
This administration is sounding more and more like they'd be right at home in Communist Russia. Via TalkLeft.
posted by chris at 1:21 PM
Trust us!
In detailing its request for $87bn (€77bn, £55bn) to fund the "war on terrorism" for the forthcoming year, the White House budget office said this week that a vast majority of those funds - $51bn - would go directly to military operations in Iraq.
It noted that $800m of that spending would go to coalition members who cannot afford to deploy their own troops. An additional $300m would go to new life-saving body armour; and $140m to heavily armoured Humvees to protect its soldiers.
But apart from those few details, the Bush administration has been tight-lipped about where the huge sums - which come on top of $62bn appropriated for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in April - are going. Because Iraq military efforts are being funded outside the normal appropriations process, in so-called "supplemental" or emergency spending bills, the funding does not go through the same rigorous congressional oversight to which normal Pentagon spending is subject annually.
What's that word? Oh yeah, accountability.
posted by chris at 1:14 PM
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003
EPA says "A-OK!"
The burning ruins of the World Trade Center spewed toxic gases "like a chemical factory" for at least six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks despite government assurances the air was safe, according to a study released on Wednesday.
Lead study author Thomas Cahill, a professor of physics and engineering, said conditions would have been "brutal" for workers at Ground Zero without respirators and slightly less so for those working or living in adjacent buildings.
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The EPA issued an air quality statement on Sept. 18, 2001, even though it "did not have sufficient data and analyzes to make the statement," the report said.
The White House "convinced the EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones," Tinsley said. Among the information withheld was the potential health hazards of breathing asbestos, lead, concrete and pulverized glass, the report said.
Remember when the Bush administration told everyone to go about their daily business and go shopping? Seems that was more for them than for us.
posted by chris at 8:26 PM
Recruiting for "cannon fodder"
With the casualty rate in Iraq growing by the day and President George Bush's worldwide "war on terrorism" showing no signs of abating, a stretched United States military is turning increasingly to Latinos - including tens of thousands of non-citizen immigrants - to do the fighting and dying on its behalf.
Senior Pentagon officials have identified Latinos as by far the most promising ethnic group for recruitment, because their numbers are growing rapidly in the US and they include a plentiful supply of low-income men of military age with few other job or educational prospects.
Recruitment efforts have also extended to non-citizens, who have been told by the Bush administration that they can apply for citizenship the day they join up, rather than waiting the standard five years after receiving their green card. More than 37,000 non-citizens, almost all Latino, are currently enlisted. Recruiters have even crossed the border into Mexico - to the fury of the Mexican authorities - to look for school-leavers who may have US residency papers.
All the US wants is bodies.
posted by chris at 8:07 PM
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Flying the suspicious skies
In the most aggressive -- and, some say, invasive -- step yet to protect air travelers, the federal government and the airlines will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk posed by every passenger on every flight in the United States.
The new Transportation Security Administration system seeks to probe deeper into each passenger's identity than is currently possible, comparing personal information against criminal records and intelligence information. Passengers will be assigned a color code -- green, yellow or red -- based in part on their city of departure, destination, traveling companions and date of ticket purchase.
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Under the new program, the airline will send information about everyone who books a flight to the TSA, including full name, home address, home telephone number, date of birth and travel itinerary. If the computer system identifies a threat, the TSA will notify federal or local law enforcement authorities. The agency has not indicated the number or type of personnel needed to oversee the program.
The TSA will check each passenger in two steps. The first will match the passenger's name and information against databases of private companies that collect information on people for commercial reasons, such as their shopping habits. This process will generate a numerical score that will indicate the likelihood that the passenger is who he says he is. Passengers will not be informed of their color code or their numerical score. The second step matches passenger information against government intelligence combined with local and state outstanding warrants for violent felonies.
Terrorist- and ax-murderer-free flights.
posted by chris at 1:13 PM
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Monday, September 08, 2003
Inside Cheney's Energy Bill
Tucked inside an 800-page energy bill winding its way through Congress is a short section that would exempt from federal regulation a lucrative gas-drilling process perfected by the energy company Vice President Dick Cheney once ran.
The exemption, while it likely wouldn't benefit Cheney financially, is testament to the support that the oil and gas industry enjoys in the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress.
The process, widely used across Colorado and the rest of the West, injects diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid or other additives into the ground to help boost production.
Environmentalists say that could put drinking water at risk, and they want federal officials to have regulatory power to prevent problems and step in if water is contaminated. Alabama residents say the technique, called hydraulic fracturing, fouled drinking-water wells and unleashed a stench in homes.
Yeah, let's shoot diesel fuel and hydrochloric acid into the ground. That's a great idea! Via Atrios.
posted by chris at 9:09 PM
A small comparison
The monthly bill for the U.S. military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan now rivals Pentagon spending during the Vietnam War, Defense Department figures show.
The Pentagon is spending nearly $5 billion per month in Iraq and Afghanistan, a pace that would bring yearly costs to almost $60 billion. Those expenses do not include money being spent on rebuilding Iraq's electric grid, water supply and other infrastructure, costs which had no parallel in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the last sustained war the nation fought, the United States spent $111 billion during the eight years of the war, from 1964 to 1972. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $494 billion, an average of $61.8 billion per year, or $5.15 billion per month. (emphasis added)
History repeats itself.
posted by chris at 9:00 PM
Elected by the rules that she set
Here's a great flash animation about Katherine Harris and the voter registration list she scrubbed prior to the last Presidential election. It lays it out nice and simply with fun pictures and big bold words. Pass it around.
posted by chris at 8:36 PM
The Patriot Act, two years later
A pretty good article detailing how the Patriot Act has played out since it's inception.
As the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approaches, the Bush administration's war on terror has produced a secondary battle: fierce struggles in Congress, the courts and communities such as these over how the war on terror should be carried out. At the heart of this debate is the USA Patriot Act, the law signed by President Bush 45 days after the terror strikes that enhanced the executive branch's powers to conduct surveillance, search for money-laundering, share intelligence with criminal prosecutors and charge suspected terrorists with crimes.
Yet the paradox of this debate is that it is playing out in a near-total information vacuum: By its very terms, the Patriot Act hides information about how its most contentious aspects are used, allowing investigations to be authorized and conducted under greater secrecy.
More.
posted by chris at 8:05 PM
Did I say $60 billion? I meant $87 billion!
President Bush said tonight that he would ask Congress for $87 billion in emergency spending for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that Iraq had now become "the central front" in the campaign against terrorism.
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Mr. Bush's request for $87 billion was on the high end of what Congress had expected. In recent days, administration officials have said they anticipated asking Congress for an additional $60 billion to $80 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The financing, if approved by Congress, would significantly add to the federal government's deficit, which is approaching $500 billion.
He did leave a few things out though:
In his 18-minute speech, Mr. Bush did not mention Osama bin Laden, who has so far eluded American capture in Afghanistan. He also did not mention the failure so far to find any unconventional weapons in Iraq, the major stated reason that the United States went to war. Nor did Mr. Bush dwell on the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, which he once predicted would abate if Saddam Hussein was ousted from power in Iraq. That conflict has worsened.
And remember, there was NEVER any conclusive link between Iraq and Al Queda, despite Bush's assertions to the contrary. Iraq may now be the "central front" in the fight against terrorism, but that's largely because we've made such a mess of things over there and opened the floodgates for anyone with a grudge to cross the poorly defended borders and set up shop. Story here. And an analysis here.
posted by chris at 7:44 PM
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Sunday, September 07, 2003
Priorities, priorities
Six months after it was established to protect the nation from terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security is hobbled by money woes, disorganization, turf battles and unsteady support from the White House, and has made only halting progress toward its goals, according to administration officials and independent experts.
The top two officials under Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge are stepping down amid criticism from some White House officials and elsewhere in the administration. So few people want to work at the department that more than 15 people declined requests to apply for the top post in its intelligence unit -- and many others turned down offers to run several other key offices, government officials said.
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As a result, the department has made little progress on some of the main challenges cited when it was created in March by merging 22 federal agencies and their 170,000 employees, according to officials in the Bush administration and Congress, as well as some outside experts. The Bush administration initially resisted establishing the department but eventually agreed.
Efforts to organize the government's 10 or so disparate lists of potential terrorism suspects, secure airline cargo against terrorist plots and advise local police and firefighters on training and equipment have all foundered, the officials said.
Glad to know we're being protected.
posted by chris at 5:36 PM
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