Slavery in Iraq

Chicago Dyke at Corrente Wire highlights this article that discusses how government-contracted businesses like Halliburton and Bechtel create elaborate --- and untraceable --- contractor and sub-contractor relationships with companies to hire folks (referred to as “third country nationals,” or TCNs) to help build the U.S. bases in Iraq.

And while the promise of increased income from these overseas jobs is an attractive lure for people from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc. what essentially happens is that these TCNs become part of the grand scheme of what is essentially, modern-day slavery (emphasis, as always, mine):

The menial wages paid to TCNs working for the regional contractors may be the most significant factor in the Pentagon’s argument that outsourcing military support is far more cost-efficient for the U.S. taxpayer than using its own troops to maintain camps and feed its ranks.

But there is also a human cost to this savings. Numerous former American contractors returning home say they were shocked at conditions faced by this mostly invisible, but indispensable army of low-paid workers. TCNs frequently sleep in crowded trailers and wait outside in line in 100 degree plus heat to eat “slop.” Many are said to lack adequate medical care and put in hard labor seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day, for little or no overtime pay. Few receive proper workplace safety equipment or adequate protection from incoming mortars and rockets. When frequent gunfire, rockets and mortar shell from the ongoing conflict hits the sprawling military camps, American contractors slip on helmets and bulletproof vests, but TCNs are frequently shielded only by the shirts on their backs and the flimsy trailers they sleep in.

Adding to these dangers and hardships, some TCNs complain publicly about not being paid the wages they expected. Others say their employers use “bait-and-switch” tactics: recruiting them for jobs in Kuwait or other Middle Eastern countries and then pressuring them to go to Iraq. All of these problems have resulted in labor disputes, strikes and on-the-job protests.

Halliburton’s numbers alone reflect that TCNs make up 73% of Kellogg, Brown & Root’s workers in Iraq. Kellogg, Brown & Root, you’ll remember, was that Halliburton company that basically overcharged the government $250 million and is going to get paid anyway.

These American companies - these companies with close ties to the Bush Administration - continue to reap the benefits from the blood, sweat, and tears of poor brown people. It's so disgusting. Is this how the War on Terror is to be won?

BARBARians to commemorate the Ides of March

If you're not doing anything on the 15th and don't mind going out for drinks on a school night, come join me and my fellow BARBARians on our latest monthly-ish night out.

Check out this post for details. No word yet on whether togas will be the required dress code for the evening.

Women of South Dakota, reclaim your uteri

So they've signed that bill into law in South Dakota which makes it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion - unless the woman's health is at stake (thank Jah for small favors). Instances of rape or incest are not included in this exemption.

Also, apparently a committee voted down a measure in that bill to immediately terminate all parental rights of a rapist upon conviction.

I'm with Kvatch. If you're a woman living in South Dakota, get the hell outta Dodge.

Reject this legalized and institutionalized misogyny. Because even if you get raped in that state and become pregnant, there's a chance that your rapist will continue to be in your life, at least until the child turns 18. And hey, maybe he'll try to rape you again. And again. Or maybe it'll be some other rapist. And then maybe you'll have given birth enough times to have a nice little family. And well, gosh darn it, isn't that just great! Family values rule! (Just don't ever talk about the fact that Daddy's a rapist.)

I don't even know what else to say about this, except to leave you with this one frightening quote from Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America:

Some other states are considering similar bans on abortion, and the South Dakota legislation will have an impact in other states.

I wouldn't be surprised if other states do, in fact, jump on the Sadists in South Dakota bandwagon. How the hell does a country like ours manage to throw away years and years of progress in such a relatively short period of time?

Totally disgusting.

You may also want to check out Blogenlust's take on this issue, as if you weren't riled up enough already.

What's the point?

The ports deal with the UAE company becomes final either tomorrow or Monday, regardless of the 45-day review.

UPDATE: And then I come across this from Think Progress (via Suburban Guerrilla). See, back in 2002, Al Qaida wrote a letter to the UAE government acknowledging that the UAE government was well aware that Al Qaida infiltrated key agencies in that country.

Why the urgency to sign this ports deal? It's almost as if the Bush Administration is trying so hard to ensure another 9/11 --- or better yet --- a thwarted attempt, saved in the nick of time. All the better to ensure you continue to vote GOP in November, my pretties.

Project Runway After Party

Episode 13: Finale Part One
So this week, the three remaining designers are tasked to present a 12-piece collection at Olympus Fashion Week.

After sharing some champagne (and cider) with Heidi and Tim, the three remaining designers toast to Fashion Week. Everyone bids goodbye to the Atlas, to Manhattan, moves out, and goes back home to work on their collections.

Five months later, Tim visits the designers to see how they’re coming along on their challenges.

Santino Rice
Tim’s first stop is Hollywood, Calif. to visit Santino – whose house looks like it should be on MTV FREAKIN’ CRIBS, by the way. (Oh. He’s renting. Carry on.)

His theme: 40’s glamour, boudoir, publicity still. Vintage meets contemporary.

Santino shows Tim a dress with sunburst pleats. So that’s what you call those things. I remember having a dress with sunburst pleats when I was a kid. Loved it! J'adore how this show is both entertaining and educational.

“It has a refinement that frankly I didn’t see from you in the show,” says Tim about the dress. Good sign, good sign.

Tim and Santino sashay down Venice Beach, talking about Santino’s past, his childhood, while watching the sunset. Santino’s had a rough life apparently, the product of a mixed-race marriage somewhere in Missouri. He lets on about a life filled with adversity, but aside from money problems, he doesn’t really get into it, except to let us in on a pretty vulnerable glimpse into his psyche:

“I come across as arrogant, but I feel major insecurity,” he says.

Obviously. I can identify with that in some way. I can’t hate Santino right now. It’s really good to see this other side of him.

They visit Santino’s friend Tony (he’s a model and photographer who looks like he could be Santino’s brother) and his wife and their family. It’s here that he reveals to his friends that he’s made it to the Final Three on the show. It’s a cute and poignant, the way Tony and his family congratulate Santino over Chinese take-out. And it’s an endearing moment, to watch one of Tony’s little daughters climb all over Santino.

Daniel Vosovic
Daniels’ in NYC working on his collection. And he got a haircut. It’s very … close to the head. I’m not feeling it. Bring back the mop!

His theme: The fusion of military influence and Japanese culture. Or, alternatively, Mixmaster Frump. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Tim’s take: Details will make or break his collection. Tim urges him to push the risk factor.

The two decide to go shopping. Daniel needs a new jacket, or a new outfit for the finale show. They share a laugh about Nick and how maybe he should design a jacket for Daniel. Har har. Gotta love the inside jokes.

Daniel breaks it down about his childhood. Small town Michigan. Gay. Pressure to be “different.” Has the best family, encouraging him to come out. Daniel is so happy with life right now.

Good for him.

Chloe Dao
Houston, Texas. Yee haw! Chloe is so cute. I swear, she reminds me of a more stylish version of myself, or one of my dear cousins. Except she's Laoatian. Minor detail.

Sistafren has SEVEN sisters. And they’re all gorgeous.

So Chloe’s breaking it down about how her family was in prison after getting caught trying to escape from Laos. And then she asks Tim to imagine how amazing it is, the fact that the family--- all 10 of them (Chloe's parents and the 8 girls)--- all managed to escape Laos, intact.

“We had a lot of cavities, but we were all safe.” You go, girl.

So about the collection. She doesn’t really have a “theme.” It’s not completely done yet. But it’s all in her head. Lil' Chlo doesn’t sketch.

Fashion Week
With five days to go to the runway show, the designers return to Manhattan.

Lil’ Chlo hasn’t slept in two days, and she’s nervous about seeing Santino – she’s still burning up about the “patternmaker” comment from Episode 11. And when Santino gets there, they talk about how hard it is, not to watch the show or read any press on the show. But he’d read an article about how Chloe doesn’t like him, and how he’d been dubbed the designer “you love to hate.”

Chloe and Santino talk about how it all went down, but I don’t know if anything is resolved. In fact, when the designers arrive at their new Banana Republic workroom and start hanging up their collections, Santino says that Chloe’s looks “like a couch is coming at you.”

So much for being a nice guy.

Tim comes back and looks at the rest of the collections. He gives Santino and Chloe props for their collections. Then he comes to Daniel’s, and he’s silent.

“Why isn’t he piddling in his panties with excitement?” Daniel asks.

Tim is struggling for words. This can't bode well for Daniel V.

“I’m waiting to see how they’ll look on the girls,” he says finally. Nice save, Tim. Not.

And as you know, pictures of the collections are out, and I really wasn’t all that impressed either. Sorry, Daniel.

Next, it’s off to see Michael Kors, giving them advice on how to give good runway and to do some model casting.

Three days before the show, and now that they have their models, it’s time for the fittings. They’re reunited with their “Project Runway” models. Everyone’s happy to see each other, yadda yadda.

And when Tim comes to see Daniel’s dress on Rebecca, Tim is still at a loss for words. Ouch. The Golden Child of Project Runway is human after all!

Two days before the runway show, everyone still has a lot of work to do. A non-pregnant Heidi Klum comes to the Banana Republic workroom to pay them a visit and bust out with a new interesting “surprise”:

They have to create one more look that has to be shown on the runway.

Don't you know they're all burnt out? And don't you know how much work they have left to do? And now my girl Lil’ Chlo is crying! Damn that Heidi Klum!

To help the already frazzled designers, Heidi tells them that they each get an extra set of hands to help them out with this challenge. At that moment, all the other designers that got kicked off file into the BR workroom. All of them. Even that annoying girl from Texas that didn't know what "auf wiedersehen" meant. Oh, goody. They get to pick who they want to help them out:

• Daniel picks Nick (he should have picked Andrae, hello Episode 6!).
• Santino picks Andrae.
• Chloe picks … DIANA ENG?

I'm sorry, but WTF? I hope homegirl has some strategery going on in that head of hers. Chloe, girl, don’t be trying to make a dress with magnets. I'm just saying.

They have a budget of $250. Thirty minutes to sketch. One hour to shop for fabric.

Stress levels are high, obviously.

And on that note, I’d like to leave you with these wise words from Santino that succinctly sum up this final challenge:

Even if you stick pasties and a maxi pad on the 13th model, it’s like, who gives a shit at this point?

Indeed, Santino. Indeed. Make it work!

Next week is when Bravo airs the runway shows. I can't freakin' wait. America's favorite fag hag, Debra Messing, will be the guest judge.

My pick? Based on how last night's episode went down, and because I've already seen most of the items in their respective collections, I'm willing to wager a carne asada burrito that Santino wins Project Runway this season.

The Curse of Dick Cheney

In light of recent events surrounding the Grim Veeper and his current 18% "favorability" rating, I feel I have to draw attention to this great 2004 article that I keep going back to from Rolling Stone. I consider it to be quite profound and quite prophetic.

Maybe there really is a Cheney curse? Does everything he touch really turn to failure?

As vice president, Cheney has been the decisive force pushing America into war. In the inner councils of the administration, it was he who emasculated Colin Powell, cut the State Department out of effective policymaking, foisted fake reports on the intelligence agencies and supplanted the National Security Council. It was also Cheney who placed appointees personally loyal to him, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, in charge of the Pentagon and speckled the warmaking bureaucracy with desk officers culled from neoconservative Washington think tanks -- ideologues with no military experience.

"They were like cancer cells," says retired Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who worked on the Defense Department's Near East and South Asia desk during the buildup to the Iraq war. "They didn't care about the truth. They had an agenda. I'd never seen anything like it. They deformed everything."
[...]
As the disaster has unfolded in Iraq, [Cheney] has continued to insist against all evidence that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction, that the dictator was aiding Al Qaeda, that nothing the Bush administration has done was a mistake. Those who have known him over the years remain astounded by what they describe as his almost autistic indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others. "He has the least interest in human beings of anyone I have ever met," says John Perry Barlow, his former supporter. Cheney's freshman-year roommate, Steve Billings, agrees: "If I could ask Dick one question, I'd ask him how he could be so unempathetic."

It baffles me how someone like Cheney can continue to get away with the things he has managed to get away with during the course of his career. Is it the permasnarl? Are people just THAT AFRAID of him?

Anyway, check out the article. It's worth a re-read.

Political Theatre

The Army: Listen, um, can you cut this check for $2.41 billion?

Pentagon Auditors: Who's it for?

The Army: It's that invoice from Halliburton.

Pentagon Auditors: The one with the almost $250 million in potentially excessive and unjustified charges?

The Army: Yep. That's the one.

Pentagon Auditors: But ...

The Army: Two words: Dick. Cheney.

Pentagon Auditors: (shiver) Should I take it out of the $900 million from American taxpayers, or from the $1.5 billion of Iraqi oil proceeds seized from Saddam's government?

The Army: Don't question me in public.



END SCENE


(With a nod to Wayne Uff at Bad Attitudes.)

Because I care

Attention all my favorite NYC bloggers with dogs: Taking the pooch out for its daily walk can be deadly.

During the snowy months of late winter, when salt mixes with slush, electric current escaping through uninsulated wires can be conducted up to the street through manholes, streetlights, service boxes, grates or cracks in the sidewalk.

New Yorkers became painfully aware of the phenomenon two winters ago, when a 30-year-old woman named Jodie Lane was electrocuted while walking her dogs in the East Village. Lane's death opened people's eyes to the risks posed by the wires that weave in and out of the city.
[...]
New Yorkers were reminded of the phenomenon last week, when a chow-collie mix named Barkis was electrocuted near Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

The dog's owner, a music producer named Danny Kapilian, was walking Barkis when the dog "started yelping and jumping" and lunged into the street. Assuming the dog was reacting to rock salt on the street, Kapilian bent down to wipe his paws. For a moment, Barkis seemed calm. Then he went into a fury — eyes flaring, teeth gnashing, so violently that Kapilian was afraid his sweet-natured dog would attack him.

Barkis then fell, flopping on to the sidewalk, and went into convulsions. Kapilian sat beside his dog for 40 minutes, a crowd gathering around him, while he waited for help. When two animal technicians reached down to try to move Barkis, they too were shocked.

This store, Trixie & Peanut, sells black-rubber soled boots for your dogs to protect them from this sort of thing.

Now, normally I’d say my usual “that’s just for people who have too much money to spend” line, but geez. What’s up with ConEd?

In an attempt to get past the lack of information out there, people are taking it upon themselves to inform other doggie owners. Some post warnings around the neighborhood. There's also a blog called Shock and Paw (nice title, guys!) that posts information on “hot spots” around town. I tried to find the link, but couldn't. If anyone comes across it, let me know, and I'll include it in this post.

Be careful out there, folks.

(Courtesy of Fark.)

R.I.P.

Oh yeah, and Mister Furley died today. End of an era.

The Sadists in South Dakota

South Dakota's Senate State Affairs Committee, as we all know, passed legislation in their state this week to ban all abortions. All of them. Even if it meant that having the baby would kill the mother or cause serious long-term damage to her body.

And I thought, wow, that's really stupid and unfortunate, but thank Jah I live in California where it is still legal (for now). And I read the responses on all of my favorite blogs. And I have to say, I was complacent. That shit would never fly in California, I thought.

And not like I think I'd ever have an abortion if I were ever to get pregnant. And of course I say that now, but you never really know until you're in that situation.

But then.

My friend Erica at Soft Pretzel Love put in her two cents. In the middle of her post, she shows this photo of a woman, Gerri Santoro, naked, lying on the floor face down, legs spread, knees bent. She's clutching a towel in her right hand, an attempt to try and stop the bleeding from her botched "back alley" abortion done by the baby daddy who happened to have his hands on some medical instruments and a medical book he borrowed from a colleague. Abortion, DIY style.

Here's the link to Erica's post. But I have to warn you, the picture - if you haven't seen it before - is graphic. Gerri Santoro is there. All up in your face.

Looking at the photo turned my stomach, obviously. The image is haunting. And I wanted to cry, because she didn't have to die like that. But she did, because where she was from, abortion was illegal. It was 1964.

Immediately I thought of all of my close friends and family who have had abortions, and I thought, "what if this happened to them?"

I wonder if these fool lawmakers in South Dakota ever try to think that way. My guess is they'd blame the woman for having sex. Hell, they'd probably blame her because she left the house, instead of staying home and cooking. Or if it was one of their daughters, they'd whisk her off to their high-priced private doctor, do the D&C, and then nobody in the family would be allowed to ever mention it. Especially at the dinner table.

What is it about the pro-life debate that says the one life is more important than another? Why, in the proselytizing over morals and "family values," does this preclude the individual autonomy of a woman to make her own decisions when it comes to her own body?

Part of me wishes I'd never seen Gerri Santoro's crime scene photo. But then again, it's a good thing I did, because now I will never forget her.

What now?

Great. Coup attempt in the Philippines.

"I have declared a state of emergency," Arroyo said in a taped address on television and radio, adding she had authorized the military and police "to take ample measures."

Dad comes home Saturday.

Is Morrissey a Terrorist?

(Or, alternatively, "The Boy with a Thorn in His Side." I couldn't decide. Anyway. Moving on.)



Of course not, but apparently the FBI and British intelligence questioned him at length after some comments he made that were critical of the Bush administration.

[Morrissey] is a famous critic of the US-led war in Iraq and has dubbed President GEORGE W BUSH a "terrorist" [well, isn't he? --me.] - but he was baffled to be hauled in by authorities.
[...]
"I don't belong to any political groups, I don't really say anything unless I'm asked directly and I don't even demonstrate in public. I always assume that so-called authoritarian figures just assume that pop/rock music is slightly insane and an untouchable platform for the working classes to stand up and say something noticeable.

"My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies. You can't really speak your mind and if you do you're investigated."

Yes, one would think so. I wonder if they'll go after Kanye next?


(Inspiration courtesy of this post at Shakespeare's Sister, fellow Smiths fan.)

Don't worry your pretty little heads

I’m sorry, come again?

We don’t need to worry about national security?

Haven’t you held the issue of national security over our heads the entire time you’ve been in office? Haven’t you used national security (and terrorism) as the basis for every decision you’ve made to effectively dismantle our civil liberties while attempting to render the Constitution irrelevant?

And when I say “basis,” I mean superficially. We all know that the real reasons you make the decisions you do are to continue to keep you and your cronies and supporters happy and fat in the wallet. Even if the home country of those cronies and supporters have supported terrorism. Even if two of the 9/11 hijackers came from this country. Even if most of the money used to fund 9/11 tragedy funneled through the country that will now run our ports.

Oh right, because that’s part of the Master Plan though, isn’t it. You think you’re being smart, building a business partnership with this company. But what you’re really doing is making us their bitch.

If we aren’t already.

Project Runway After Party

UPDATE: Here's a video link to the Daniel Franco song. It's here until YouTube shuts it down. Enjoy. I've already watched it like, a million times. (Courtesy of Blogging Project Runway.)


Episode 12: The Reunion Show
Aaah. Everyone is back for one night to dish about behind-the-scenes stuff. I never realized how much I missed everyone until watching the reunion show.

All 16 of the designers show up one by one at the Parsons New School, looking ALL hot. John discovered Atkins, Kirsten is seven months prego, and Kara is engaged! They all hang out backstage getting all liquored up. Looser tongues make for better TV, my pretties.

On the set, everyone’s sitting around with Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn talking about how their lives have changed because of the show, like how everyone's been working like crazy on all these cool and amazing projects, and Guadalupe is busting out with this ironic clap, like she’s happy but giving you the stink eye at the same time. Rowr! Hmm. Guadalupe must not ... be working on anything ... interesting. (Uncomfortable silence.)

Tim asks Chloe about the time the last three designers stabbed her in the back. To add insult to injury, they replayed the clips from last week, including the one where Santino called her basically a patternmaker. Chloe's crying. Daniel Franco, Jah bless him, calls Santino out, asking him why he always has to be mean. And Chloe tells Santino that he basically offended everyone along the way.

Santino says that what he says doesn’t matter. (Interesting choice of words there.) That it doesn’t come from an evil place.

Cue Santino montage!

Santino says that he regrets that his words hurt the other designers’ feelings. But I'm sure he doesn’t regret the fact that his outrageous personality was the only thing that kept him on that show, because homeboy ended up at Olympus Fashion Week anyway, yo!

Oh my god. Guadalupe is tanked. I can’t even transcribe her response to the question that asked whether she thought her Nicky Hilton loss was justified.

Oh yay. They replayed Andrae’s breakdown. With an “elapsed time” stamp! Hahaha! Nine minutes, 53 seconds! And by the way, the Andrae montage was hilarious! Kara and Chloe immitating Andrae while doing their morning primping? Hysterical!

Zulema’s montage introduces us to her alter ego, Shatangi. Understatement of the evening:

“I don’t think I’m that intense.”

Right, Zu.

And as if there isn’t enough tension in the room right now, they bring up Zulema’s now-infamous walk off battle, and bring out Tarah and Rachel, the models. There is much eye rolling from Rachel, Miss "If you're gonna do all that, at least come out with a bangin' dress!" Oh no she didn't! All that was missing was the neck snap.

Looking back, all those models walked the same. Zulema thought that she was doing Rachel a favor by helping her “evolve” with her walk. Whatever! As if walking’s like, hard or something.

Cue more shit-talking montages.

The musical montage was the best! It was a “Lighten up, it’s just fashion” and “Daniel Franco, where did you go?” medley.

What was up with Daniel Franco telling Heidi Klum that he loved her? And what was up with the awkward silence that followed? Yikes. Daniel Franco may have a good heart, but that was creepy, like how when one of your hardcore stalkers says "I love you" to your face and all you want to do is take a hot shower and scrub yourself with a Brillo pad. At least, that's what I hear it's like.

Bravo loves them some drama!

The final runway show airs on March 8, kittens. And the preview shows Chloe crying. Again. Why does Bravo have to make lil’ Chlo cry every episode?

Portgate really boils down to torture

Lambert at CorrenteWire has a great post up about how the whole UAE port deal boils down to the Bush Administration ensuring that it can continue to torture.

See, so while the whole Portgate deal makes Bush appear like a blithering idiot who doesn't even know what's going under his own watch, making it look like we're pretty much handing terrorists free reign and access over and into our country, in Bush's cognitively dissonant "reality," this is really about showing how the Administration really IS tough on terror after all!

Clever how they do that, isn't it? From the AP [Emphasis mine.]:

The Bush administration secretly required a company in the United Arab Emirates to cooperate with future U.S. investigations before approving its takeover of operations at six American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. It chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.

As part of the $6.8 billion purchase, state-owned Dubai Ports World agreed to reveal records on demand about "foreign operational direction" of its business at U.S. ports, the documents said. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment.

The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If officials had predicted the firestorm of criticism over the deal, Lewis said, "they might have made them sound harder."

Silly me, thinking that some Bush loyals really meant their criticisms. I'm sure they knew this smoke and mirrors trickery all along. It's amazing how creative they can be to try and get around the whole "torture" thing, yet they fail to use their same, twisted imaginations to solve the real problems on our own soil.

"Project Jay" on Bravo tonight!

Tonight’s the first episode of “Project Jay, the spinoff to my favorite reality show (don't act like you don't know) “Project Runway.”

For those of you living in a cave, this show highlights Jay McCarroll, the winner of last season's “Project Runway” and his experiences, misgivings, and rants, surrounding his life as a post-reality fashion designer in New York.

According to this review in the New York Times, we find out that the fashion world ain't pretty.

But first, we see Jay off to make a name for himself in New York via Park Slope. Brooklyn, y’all.

Jay is informed by his publicist tells him that Heidi Klum wants Jay to design an evening gown for her to wear at the Emmys. And although Jay doesn’t really want to do it (evening wear is not his thang), and he wants to tell Heidi to not wear red (even though that’s the color she requested), he makes her a dress anyway.

Fade out, fade in.

At the last minute, Heidi’s “people” tell Jay that they’re going to go with another dress after all.

Ain’t fashion a bitch.

(Photo credit: Craig Blankenhorn/Bravo)

Puppet Presidency

So as we are all hearing, the White House now claims that Dub didn't know anything about the UAE ports deal.

That's why Bush is so vehement about threatening any congressional obstruction with a veto.

It all makes sense, and if you don't get it, you hate America or something.

Somewhere, Bush is saying, "I supported the UAE port deal even though I knew nothing about it."

Closure

Back in November, I posted about O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, a Brazil-based church that holds as sacred the drinking of a tea that contains a component - hoasca - that the Bush Administration considers an illegal drug. The case was to be heard in front of the Supreme Court.

I thought that this case was significant, because it was the first religious freedom case to be heard by newly minted Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, who wrote the court opinion. [Scalito took "no part in the consideration or decision" in this case.] You can read the opinion in its entirety here (if you have a lot of spare time and the interest), but basically it's saying that the government's desire to have a uniform application of the Controlled Substances Act violates a person/group's religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (The Peyote Exception). Furthermore, the opinion states that the government didn't even submit evidence that would show the damage that would be caused if the tea was exempt from the CSA.

Basically, the government failed to make its case.

Thanks to Catherine at Poverty Barn for the heads up. I love closure, especially when it works out the way I'd like it to.

Save the drama for your mama!

So yesterday I posted about former U.S. Senate Candidate Paul Hackett and how his camp may have leaked out campaign research that paints Sherrod Brown in a bad light, right?

So today, Hackett is accusing Brown's campaign of spreading ugly rumors that Hackett mishandled body parts while serving in Iraq. I know. This shit is better than a soap opera.

Word 'round the campfire is that pictures exist of Hackett PLAYING WITH BODY PARTS. Of course, Hackett denied this on Hardball with Chris Matthews:

"I have heard those stories, and they're absolutely preposterous," Hackett said. "I invite anybody who wants to make those allegations to come onto your show. I'll meet them here."

Hackett said he believes that the rumors came from Brown's campaign because he heard that from "multiple different sources throughout Ohio, all pointing in that direction."

And of course, Brown's campaign folk deny they had any part in spreading this nasty rumor.

Hackett had previously shied away from identifying the source of the rumors. In an interview last week with The Plain Dealer, Hackett said he believed that he knew the source of the rumors but didn't want to elaborate. He instead suggested that a reporter contact a supporter of his, Clermont County Democratic Chairman David Lane.

Lane said last week that he had no proof that a Democrat was responsible for the rumors, but he recounted a conversation last fall with Dan Lucas, an aide to Brown, in which he said Lucas told him "there are things out there about Paul that I don't think he [Hackett] really wants to be made public."

This is insane. And I don't know what's real or not. I'm sure Hackett didn't futz around with body parts, and I don't know if Hackett himself intentionally leaked that information about Brown to the Toledo Blade. But what I do know is this backstabbing and mudslinging and just plain ugliness is going to hurt us in Ohio.

I mean, I understand Hackett might have some serious angst about being asked to drop out of the race in favor of Brown. I get that. Even I was pissed. (And I don't even live in Ohio!) And if someone accused me of playing with body parts in Iraq, I'd staunchly defend my reputation, as Hackett is doing. But also, if these rumors have been going on for a while, why wait until just last week to say anything?

In just two days, the democratic ticket in Ohio has just turned into a morass of infighting and backstabbing and just plain ugliness, when instead they should be working together to make sure a Democrat wins the Senate seat in the next election.

How does this make sense?

The Bush Administration plans to allow a company based in the United Arab Emirates to run six major ports in this country.

Yeah I know. WTF. How does this make sense?

The UAE was used by some of the 9/11 terrorists as both an operational and a financial base.

Yep. BushCo sure loves him some 9/11.

I guess this means I really should finish my copy of House of Bush/House of Saud.

With a nod to esteemed BARBARian colleague and Most Benevolent Despot King of Zembla for the link.