KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - President Karzai accused Afghan guards working for U.S. coalition forces of killing a provincial police chief and at least four other security officers during a gunbattle outside a government office Monday.
In a harshly worded statement, Karzai demanded that coalition forces hand over the private security guards involved. But the governor of Kandahar later said 41 guards connected to the incident had been disarmed and arrested by Afghan authorities.
How many times is this guy going to accuse us of doing horrible things before he asks us to leave?
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It must be time for a new contract!
Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of the giant contractor, KBR Inc., to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases.
No one disputes that. But that's where agreement ends.
Among the issues now rippling from the courthouse to Capitol Hill are whether the chemical made people sick, when KBR knew it was there and how the company responded
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What Madoff Really Needs is Company, and Lots of It
Don't get Madoff, get even: Bernie Madoff may deserve his 150-year jail sentence – but he wasn't the biggest crook on Wall Street
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/29-12
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How not to be popular
...Nearly eight in 10 Democrats and about two-thirds of independents said they want the Senate to confirm Sotomayor, but that drops to 36 percent of Republicans. Overall, most Republicans deem the judge a "more liberal" nominee than they would have liked.Worse, many Republicans see her race as a handicap. "Half of Republican men and 59 percent of conservative Republicans said [race plays] a role in her decision making, with most of those who do saying that that is a bad thing," the report tells us. GOP messaging is clearly working with the base, but that's not necessarily a good thing for them; the message may be aimed at that conservative core, but that doesn't mean they're the only ones hearing it. We're all being asked to be skeptical of the motives of people who aren't white, because everyone knows it's only white people who don't think about race. White guys like me -- or so the reasoning seems to go -- don't really have a race. We're all the default.
Keep reading: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-not-to-be-popular.html
From the NY Times:
After a year in preparation, a much-heralded auction of licenses to develop Iraq's huge oil reserves began Tuesday but seemed to run into difficulties when oil and gas companies demanded far more remuneration than the authorities were ready to pay.Symbolically, the sale, broadcast on television, coincided with the formal handover by American forces of security arrangements in urban areas to Iraqi forces — an economic counterpoint to the striving for political military independence underpinning the Iraqi takeover of patrolling Iraq's restive cities.
I guess the return on our trillion dollar investment is China securing the oil rights.
Then they arrest the guy again and are trying to deport him for being a terrorist, the same charge which they were unable to prove in a court of law.
If you want to know why our government is often reviled throughout the world, it is because of stupid shit such as this. This is the (in)Justice Department and the DBP acting like a bunch of spoiled children, whining and carrying on because they didn't get what they wanted. (ICE is an appropriate acronym for some of the goons involved, for they sure do not have warm blood flowing through their veins.)
So if you ever wondered what life would be like if six-year-olds had the powers of arrest and could carry guns, now you know.
A John Edwards' sex tape will be a significant part of a new book being written by an ex-aid for St. Martins. But the really damning part:
According to our source, [the mistress] Hunter confided to [the author] Young that she and Edwards talked about getting married should the candidate's cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, pass away, even discussing what music they'd play at their wedding.
Goodbye political rehabilitation!
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Go read: Democrats to progressives: we're just not that into you.
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Need more proof that health insurers are cowardly monopolies that wouldn't last ten minutes against real competition? Talking Points Memo has it.
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Howard Dean: "You know who has socialized medicine in this country? Everyone over 65 and everybody in Congress."
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EPA releases list of 44 dangerous coal ash sites in ten states There is no such thing as clean coal, and anyone who says there is - is a dirty damned liar.
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Elderly wingnut 'teen idol' also wants personal copy of Obama's birth certificate
What happens when you're super angry about a Negro somehow becoming president, but there are no longer specific laws against a Negro becoming president? Make up something else! Better yet, make up something that can never be disproved, to you, because you can just dedicate yourself to saying, "Nah, that is FAKE somehow!" Perfection. And guess who just joined the "Birther" club? Once-famous right-wing asshole and talentless fruitsack Pat Boone, who made a living half a century ago stealing the black man's music, that's who. MORE »
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Hero/patriot Dan Froomkin says goodbye to his readers and good riddance to the Wah!Poo in a gracious column. Well, OK, he reams the the neocon suckhole a new one. But in an amicable and gallant way. Sort of.
Kudos to the Froomster. That was beautiful.
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The Supreme Court has rejected a class-action lawsuit against Saudi Arabia (who funded the attacks) brought by 9/11 survivors and relatives of those killed in the attacks.
The court's decision Monday not to allow an appeal of the case to go forward effectively ends an effort by some 6,000 9/11 relatives and survivors to sue the government of Saudi Arabia and several members of the Saudi royal family over the country's alleged behind-the-scenes role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/29/supreme-court-quashes-911-lawsuit-against-saudis/
Recall that they also refused to hear Valerie Plame's case. And they didn't give a reason for that one either.
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