Sorry, I'm on a roll...

Well, before I ran/walked to the artist class yesterday I had three bags of Cliff Bloc's with caffeine. I love them. They are like candy. They are organic and the caffeine is from green tea extract and man does it work! I didn't get to bed until 4:00 AM and then I only slept for an hour and now it's a little after 5:00 AM and I"m up again...so here I am.. just full of it this morning.

Okay I just preached about politics and our economic situation so now I'm going to preach about gaining and maintaining good health because our insurance companies are becoming unfriendly and inefficient and forget Medicaid.

I know some one's sister who was in a car accident and now wants to be put on disability because she can't work. Well, she has to wait a year! Yes! I said a year! Good thing her mother is still alive and daddy had good social security yet where his wife gets way and I guess he had a pension. Pension...that's becoming a thing of the past and company sponsored group health insurance plans (and dental).

Because Bush is a president of the companies and not the people all those good things will go away along with the outsourcing of your decent paying jobs.

Did you know that in many states were people are filing for unemployment that the paperwork is being done overseas? No, I am not kidding you. So, the unemployment office is not even helping out the people it's supposed to be helping out by giving them a job in their own office. Instead they are outsourcing the paperwork to workers in another country. How does your stomach feel now?

Oh yes, take care of your health by exercising. Try running. It's the cheapest and most effective. Just don't over due it. Start out slow. Running besides being excellent for your physical health is wonderful for your emotional and mental health too. Oh, and take glucosamine chondroitin too for your connective tissues and joints and tendons. Take it now even before your knees start to ache...then they won't ache. My don't! Drink enough water and take vitamins. Read people read up on this stuff. Go to Puritan Pride's web site and read a lot or get the little booklet. The stuff is divided up into areas of the anatomy and general over all good health purposes. If don't have to buy just read. Eat better. You know what you should be eating.

Get into you and soon you will grow to love yourself because you are helping yourself; because you are doing good for yourself! And you will be proud and begin to preach to everyone like I do. I'm only trying to help people and show them by example that if I can do it...be curvy, healthy and a size eight at 59 years old and look cute in jeans .. that anyone can do it.

Here is the sad part...age is irrelevant. Sad to say I see many woman much younger than myself who many aches and pains and a rather sedentary lifestyle by choice rather than need. I love the dictionary definition of sedentary, well one of them. "Attached to a surface and not moving freely, as a barnacle." People, don't let it get to that extreme!

There too are so many women who reach a certain age..well they were never active..but then they start saying. "Well, we are getting older!" A statement like that upsets me because you are what you say. Your body hears every word you say! So stop it!

I keep telling myself I"m 35 and by god (or universe) I am! Inside and out, I am a healthy, fit 35 year old and I love myself! It's true - you create your own reality, your own environment. Haven't you gotten curious and watched "The Secret"?

Or watch the DVD "What the Bleep do we know?" and get the sequel: "How Far Down the Rabbit Hole do You Want to Go?"

Don't be like your mom or dad...think differently. When social security was started during the depression (1933) people were only living to their 40's. See how things have changed with modern medicine and cleaner, safer living environment. Yes, I know that is hard to believe. But 40 is the new 60. I'm living proof! Put a little effort into it people - your body is a gift!

Want to hear something cute? When I finished the half marathon (13.1 miles) on Sunday in 2:21:53 (last year I did 2:15 and I vow next year will be much better). I was listening to the awards be announced. I wasn't expecting on getting one but my 60 year old friend got first place. Anyone, along side of me came this cute little blond head woman and she said. "There isn't an age group of awards for me." And I couldn't image why so I asked. "Well, what is your age group?" and she said. "I'm 82 and I ran the 5k (3 miles)". And she was very proud of it and I about fell over. Now, those people running this half marathon need to look at all the runner's who registered and make sure that there is an award for someone so outstanding as to just participate in such an event. She was the cutest thing. So talkative! And what an inspiration. See when I get 82, it will be the new 62! I can hardly wait! I"m going to keep on running those half marathon....and keep blogging. You haven't heard the last of me.

I think I may have to move to another blog site because I have about reached my 1000 limit blog posts on this one. I have www.zimzoomz.spaces.live.com and www.mzzim.wordpress.com Oh, just google zimzoomz and mzzim.

I wish people would get my message but they don't. They do not do a thing for their own health and wellness and what surprises me.. then they have the audacity to be surprised when they discover they are diabetic. Then they get depressed and do nothing....like the old guy at the pool who hogs up the whole lane and refuses to share. He is really stuff in self-piety it oozes!

So don't let yourself get to this point! Fight it! I think now I know why I picked those god awful parents and that horrible childhood. I learned to love myself. I learned never to ask them for anything. I learned to be self-disciplined. I learned to take care of myself. I learned to bounce back after I got knocked down...only I came up stronger than before! I sworn never to have to owe them anything and I never did. I have been self-sufficient from the time I was eighteen and I'm proud of that. I mother was never happy and complained about everything. I complained about nothing. She was always in pain and sick...not me! I sworn to be the opposite!

See, they say we pick our parents and we pick our body types. From the time was I was very young I was grateful for my body, my safety, injury free, accident free life and my wonderful health. My youthfulness. I thank the universe everyday...it's key!

Start by being grateful for what you do have and expect wonderful things. I believe! Like attracts like! Put love out there...get love back. Put a crabby ass out there...you ain't getting anything back. Be extremely needy...same thing. Nothing! Love yourself. Be good to yourself. Come on....make the best of this lifetime while you have it...and it will become fun!

Okay! I guess I'm finished preaching ...for now. I'm only trying to wake you up. It's never too late. And you don't need a lot of money. I remember when I had nothing. You know recently I found pictures of the little apartment that I had and looking at them suddenly I felt very comforted and fill with warmth; just as I felt when I had my little modest apartment pieced together by hand me downs and cheap stuff. I loved that little place. My own space. I felt safe...just looking at the pictures. Isn't that something! I treasured those moments. I was about thirty then and finally got a decent job with benefits. I had a decent car. I had many friends. I was able to save a little money. I was bicycling and beginning to run a little. In other words I was getting into my own. My straight women friends who not work up a sweat. Intuitively I knew a good workout was healthy and that sweating was good. My role model at the time was a young guy who played tennis and rode bicycle. But, he did these things with his buddy which didn't stop me. I hit tennis balls against a school building wall where someone drew a line and I rode by myself. I had fun! I felt good about myself. I came into my own! You can to at any age! Don't wait for someone to do it with you...you'll wait for a long time. Like Nike says. "Just Do It!"

And here you spent all that money on a good education...

It’s getting scary folks! Even radiologist, lawyers, doctors and mostly IT techs are affected. All the good paying jobs are going to countries where they can be done so much cheaper. The quality of the work? Who knows? But it’s cheaper for big corporations, hospitals, and insurance companies!

So, what field should you get into? Maybe nursing, massage, physical therapy, hair dressing or barbering…that would be hard to do from a third world country. You better work your butt off though and make a lot of money, because you won’t get paid vacations, dental, visual, or medical insurance probably. Well, I think the hairdressers at J. C. Penny do. Or they did! It is worth checking into. It’s hard work though, trying to please the public. I know I’ve done it! And as time goes on, standing for hours working with your arms up in the air and reaching out..gets to your back, neck and shoulders. Life is tough! And our government is allowing it to get tougher by outsourcing and off shoring jobs that once were premium in this country and kept our economy and federal tax base booming. No longer. Minimum wage (if that) jobs prevail in today’s work market. Now, on top of the outsourcing and off shoring Americans are competing with illegal aliens who are getting paid under the table and not having to pay taxes. And they send their money home to Mexico so they are not putting money back into our economy. Plus you are paying for their hospitalization and schooling which they get free of charge. I guess we should declare all of them citizens so they are counted and their employers have to pay workmen’s compensation, state and federal and social security tax on them. But, see our president wants to give companies a break…so he is letting them slide into this country with a blind eye. The illegal aliens gain, companies gain, but you lose!

The government is not offering good enough incentives for corporations to keep jobs here in this country. Maybe it would be better if I lived in Canada! But wait! The Bush dynasty has their greedy hands and a plan involving them too, along with Mexico and South America. Yes, all the way to Argentina is soon to be one happy family but probably all poor and cheated out of something or other because the plan is spear headed by the Bush dynasty…starting with daddy Bush, even great grandfather Prescott Bush who was a Union banker and aided and abetted the Germans before and during WWII. Read “American Axis” by Max Wallace…see the last few chapters The first part is about Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh. They weren’t angels and sympathetic to the German Nazi cause. Ford had an automobile plant in Germany which was turned into a military machine shop…and not for us.

I haven’t seen recent state or federal government bills do a blasted thing except knock people out of middle class status down to just above the poverty line. More and more people are being forced to work for minimum wage because all the good jobs even those requiring post graduate degrees are being shipped to third world countries and Mexico. Most people can’t even afford to keep the houses the financial institutions told them they were able to afford. Well, the financial companies got their fees and if you default on your loans they will just reprocess your home and sell it again to another unsuspecting “tricked into thinking they could actually afford that house” person or couple who has nomoney to put down or has to borrow the down payment.

Wow! There is this all going to end? It’s never happened before…none of it has, not like this. We have never had a global economy connected by the Internet before. Last month was the first time that other markets made more money on American businesses than the American markets. Scary? Yes!

Insurance companies don’t want to pay out only raise your premiums at the drop of a hat. Drug companies want drugs for young girls to be mandatory so the drug companies can make bundles of money. They cannot possibly know the long term effects of this HPV vaccination. What will her pregnancies and babies be like? They don’t know! They just want to sell a drug and make a bunch of money. And states and companies are so in cahoots that the state and federal government are selling out the middle-class and jeopardizes lives in the process. They don’t care about you….only how much money they can make. They don’t care about the air you breathe or you. Even bumpers on cars aren’t worth crap anymore. Have you seen all the concave bumpers. They are junk. Well the federal government lifted the bumper crash proof at 30 MPH or whatever safety standard that was required in the past. See how we get slighted! You have bought cars…even eye glassesa and they try to slip in extra charges after you say you don’t want them. You have to watch your back every moment anymore. The government is as bad as the rest of them. It’s depressing.

Well, we know the war in Iraq was needless except so Halliburton could make a bundle. Yes, your tax money into their pockets not back in yours in ways of social benefits but their greedy little hands. What ever happened to our forefathers wishes for government by the people for the people. And now Halliburton moves it’s headquarters to Dubai, United Arab Emirates so they do not have to pay federal income tax. Now are you scared? It’s so they do not have to pay USA federal income taxes on “your” money that you so graciously gave them and risked your life for by fighting this war for profit. Their profit! Your lost - their gain. Democracy to imperialism is what is happening now.

Oh and now we are pulling out of Iraq because it got so unpopular so they just make up excuses to go to Iran. There are three or four warships posted nearby already. So I guess all of the 100,000 or more companies over in Iraq, making a killing, (pardon the pun) will head up and move on out to Iran where the action will take place next.

This is the 21st century people! I only wonder just what condition the United States will be in soon after the Bush Dynasty and associated corporations and stripped it bare of any amount of economy what so ever. They don’t care! Remember in the 80’s when corporate takeovers were so popular? When corporations would buy up smaller ones and fire everybody. I feel this is happening to the United States. We are being sold down the river by our own government! Nice bunch of guys wouldn’t you say. Just how much money and power do these people need? They want to control the world.

The United States is steadily headed down hill into a country of poverty due to extremely cheap labor. We won’t even be able to buy the cheap Walmart stuff that is now made in China. Even if Americans followed their jobs to India and elsewhere it wouldn’t pay. Those people are working for next to nothing and that is even feeling rich to them. Soon that is exactly what it will be like here in the United Sates because our local, state and federal government is just as greedy as the next guy and will sell-out their own mothers if they felt it necessary to make a buck!
We don’t hear the words, ethical, honor and integrity much anymore do we? Those people do not exist not in the new 21st century!

Let’s see how far and how fast we can “ripe ‘em off”! That is exactly what it is all about. I guess the “Better Business Bureau” just plain closed up. The government probably closed it up. It’s non-existent! We are drowning out here and on our own. FEMA where are you? We have been cheated for years…government screwdrivers have always costed four times as much as necessary. A total steal of the American tax payers dollars which should have been turned into decent health care and schools and we should have have been treated equally.

Now ponder all that - and while you are at it.. try to have a nice day! I guess don’t bother writing your congressman. I think both parties are in on this people! We don’t stand a chance! Your bank account will never be the same again and you’ll never get that credit card balance down. I guess the banks in China are holding our individual debts too along with Bush’s multi-trillion dollar war for profit debts. It’s a joke people - but no one is laughing! And vote democratic? You can if you want to….personally, I think the next election is probably is sewed up in the bag already…you know electronic voting machines and all and the Bush dynasty connecting with the systems software company…you know “big company” and all. It’s scary but I do think that there is a huge plan in the works.. perhaps a global dynasty?

I have a few DVD’s for you to watch: “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and “American Freedom for Fascisim” by Aaron Russo

Oh, and read “Exporting America” by Lou Dobbs And watch CNN!
Watch CNN!

Elisabeth said something I finally agree with

Yes, Elisabeth on "The View" said something to the effect that this British stand off is a way to get us, (EU and USA) into a war with Iran. Profound! Elisabeth Profound!

And Rosie said it's a war for profit! Which I agree with totally. Hey, the companies and soldiers are right next door in Iraq why not Iran next. The only reason we are pulling out of Iraq is because it was become so unpopular with the American people. And the politicians in Washington want to keep the party going for all the 100,000 companies already in the middle east so why not move the party next door?

Cheney is running the show. He and his big business cronies and daddy Bush are allowing this country, the United States, to go down the tubes are running the show. I hope they have some kind of plan...do they? Or are they no better then the CEO's of Enron with buddy Ken Lay. In fact Ken Lay was a friend of the White House wasn't he. Oh he still is! Heart attack my ass! He was just summons to appear in court so had a heart attack of convenience, and died but is probably living in Belize and bashing in the sunshine drinking pina coladas. Get what I mean?

Our own government is selling us down the river. Don't want to think about it? Read "The Exporting of America" by Lou Dobbs. He even lists companies. Once more, he thinks both parties are involved too! See I knew it! Or it's bigger than the democrats ever imagined and they are afraid to tackle it....or they too know we are over a barrel. Are we being framed? I would rather think that these people were corrupt at their own free well and forced to be.

Rosie agree with me too! She keeps using the word "impeach". She wants to go for the jugular. I just want to enlighten people. So they wake up and stop living in a dream world and stop spending! Stop it! Do you want to lose your house? And trim down that credit card balance before it's too late. Stop living on borrowed time.

The good jobs have been shipped overseas for cheap labor and people here are being forced to try to compete with the Mexican to find any kind of job - let's face it! But, in the mean time they do not want to give up their middle class living conditions of big house and huge SUV so they charge everything and max out several credit cards. Wrong!

Wrong! Because if you should lose your jobs (and you'll need more than one!) within a month or two you could be homeless or back in with mom and dad..the only most stable people you ever knew. But they already are taking care of your grandparents plus the little baby your sister had. Yeah the baby boomers are getting (or rather giving it) from both end..parents and kids. There goes the next retirement they always dreamed of. And Bush and friends are depending on this. Oh, I'm sure he doesn't give you all a second thought. He's daddy's rich little kid!

Just who do you think will join the Republican candidate forces right before November 2008. Yeah good guess Jeb! Hell, they don't need him in Florida anymore because now they have rigged electronic voting machines. These guys must be just partying, smoking cigars and drinking and just laughing up a good time because they have the future all sewed up. Of course I'm sure it's been in the works for years.

Read "American Dynasty" by Kevin Phillips. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down once you start to read it. It's fascinating stuff!

Do your homework....go to the bookstore write down titles and authors and then put them on your list at the library. Get to know your enemies.

google zimzoomz.at spaces.. I think.

It's Dianne's space. It's a "Windows Live Spaces". I like the layout better I think! Anyway, seems I have so much to say one blog or two is not enough I think I have three now with Wordpress. I can't get a good picture going there.

Oh damn! It's time to get ready already for my yoga class. I want that woman! My instructor is wonderful... and her body. And did I mention her husband is handsome. He is one of these tall, slendar, nice butt, hairy, except for his head...but manly and handsome. When I Iwas in my 30's and trying to live the straight life...you know for family, society, and the church, I dated a man much like that. I was prove to be in his company. Women were envious. He made me feel very feminine. I did love him. But you know what?

I loved him making love to me.. but something was terribly missing. I wasn't into making love to him back. Now, being with a woman..it's wonderful. I love making love to her. I always felt much more connected to women..my heart was so connected.

Just thinking about it...making love to a man never turned me on.. like with a woman...sorry if I gave out to much information for anyone reading this.

God, I missed out on so much in my young life.....then.. Oh my god! I should have been with her! Oh well! I can't think about the past and only live in the present. I thank the universe for the intimate moments that I have now. She sends me high rather I'm sharing, giving or receiving and what a wonderful place to be. Finally, I"m home! Thank you universe.

On that note.. now on to my lovely yoga instructor........and class

I"m waiting for my friend to get here which

could be any second now. We are going to walk just a bit, she has had surgery recently so it won't be far. It's 70's and breezy and cloudy. A nice day for a walk.

I have already went for a swim this morning and if it was the swimming which was hurting my left shoulder neck area...will it just took care of it again. Because it feels okay now. Who knows?

Yesterday was a magical half marathon. Magical in the fact that I actually crossed the finish line. No! But I could have done better. I need to drop about ten pounds. Why is that so hard for me? You have read past blogs you know I work my ass off. But still I guess my intake of food far exceed the activity to wear it off.

Let's see. I swam, sang and played my guitar...if only I could get about five songs memories well. As it is now I know about four. Think I'll go play and sing somemore to memorize. I'll be back!

A few minutes later and I'm back! I'm working on memorizing the chords for "Moonglow", "It's Impossible", "Satin Doll", "You Don't Know me", "No one", "Georgia", "Ruby", "Cold, Cold Heart", and "I'm Sorry" and probably more old standards like that. I'll throw in "Margaritaville", and "Every Breath that you take". I guess the secret is just keep on practicing. I try to play a little bit each day. I'll getting ready to play around the campfire on a float trip in September. I hope to have a least ten songs memorized and good! I can do "Under the Boardwalk" too. "Cape Cod Bay" would be another one I would love to master but so far not getting it. I'll keep trying. And how about "Fever"? We'll see. I have a long way to go.

Now for art. I'm am still trying to draw Helen Mirron from the cover of AARP and so far.. I'm not getting it. I'll give it a shot now and then I want to read some before leaving to play golf at 4:20 PM. Our tee time is at five for nine holes.

Hey I'm still pooped from running 13.1 miles yesterday and I swam this mornning. What's this? My eyes just fell shut! Damn! I'm drinking coffee.. It's this wonderful breeze passing through my open screened patio doors. On to the next thing. I have an hour... yet.

I'll never understand it

Why are some people like robots who can only listen to orders from someone else? And which is worse, to not apply reasoning, common sense, or waver to these orders.

Case in point: A dog get hit by a car and is lying along side the rode. People are stopping and think the dog can be helped. In the mean time a cop has stopped and calls into his lieutantant. The lieutantant advises that if the dog is very seriously hurt the most humane this to do is to put the dog down by shooting it.

The officer acts like a robot and nothing will change his mind. He is going to shoot the dog! A man kneels to pet the dog..the officer is going to wait until he is finished and then kill it. More people stopping now suggests a call to the humane society or local vet's.. which someone finally does. A woman offers to generously pay all the bills. The officer has his gun drawn and still wants to kill the dog. The robot states: "An order is an order".

I guess that is the part of the story that really gets to me. Just what kind of people are becoming police officers out there. He had no compassion, no reasoning and didn't use common sense. "An order is an order"! Scary stuff!

I know not all officers have this type of "I can't think, only take orders" mentality. But, this is really sad.

The dog is well and very happy at home once again. It seems the owner was moving and the dog was staying with not very responsible friends. I guess the dog decided to find his mother. Anyway, when the dog arrived at the vet and got some pain medicine he was up and walking.

The officer said. "Oh, he had blood and stuff coming out of his mouth". Anyway! I just found the story rather disturbing. How would you like to have your dog hit by a car and not even given a second chance. I just wonder our Mr. Robotic Cop treated traffic offenders and other people in various situations.

In my opinion most police officers are very kind and are looking out for your best interest. They have a heart! They want to help people and animals.

But, I guess every once in a while who get a robot on a make believe ego trip who think tough is manly. Tough is not manly; compassion, kindness is manly. It's manly because so many men do not know how to deal with their emotions and live them. I believe that when they have learned or allow their true inner feelings to show is manly.

So, apparently one company controlled it all?

I'm talking about the dog food can products for about 93 different labels of dog and cat food products. One company must have controlled all the contents that were used.

Rat poison in food and cat food you say. Now that gets me to wondering. Were they making cat and dog food from poisoned rat meat? You know, rats ate the poison and therefore the meat is no good.. it's poisoned too.

Did someone at this single major company get a great deal from a third world rat invested company?

Okay, if that is not it. Did an unhappy employee dump large quantities of rat poison into the dog food mix before it was canned? I think that would have been terribly obvious because it would have taken probably hundreds of pounds of rat poison.

I'm sticking to my poisoned rat meat theory. Oh, they can just make it smell at beef, chicken or lamb. You now add a little gravy for smell, taste and color.

But, one thing for sure, I don't think you will ever find out the reason story.

And not that the cat is out of the bag and we know one company makes "all" the dog and cat canned food...might as well buy the cheapest brand.

For once someone who agrees with me...

and he wrote a book! "God on Your Own" by Joseph Dispenza. Finding a Spiritual Path Outside of Religion. See Chapter four "Beliefs" page 59. Here Joseph like me wonders "What if there was no such thing as God?"

And this is what I was thought and Joseph Dispenza writes: "What if the holy books of the world religions were not written or even 'inspired' by a grand divine personage, but were made up by ordinary people like you and me?"

See! My thoughts exactly! To make a statement like this when I was growing up would be blasphemy and I would go directly to hell!

How whole culture rests on Christian principle! God in on our money. In our courts! We swear to god on the bible under oath - for god sakes!

What if god is purely fictional - for a purpose?

Personally, I think you should read "The Field" by Lynne McTaggart. It's about spirituality and quantum physics and zero point field (the vibrational space between cells). The point is made that we connect with one another by our thoughts. Our thoughts are very powerful. The power lives within each and every one of us.

In my view, we do not need "man made written up religion". We do not need to be controlled by the church that tells us we are born sinners and must obey their rules or go to hell. The church is anti-gay and anti-pleasure to make it easy for us to fall into sin so we have to repent and do the church's bidding. In this way, we need the church. If we weren't broke they would have no purpose!

All we need to do to be like, loving, productive citizens is to be spiritual and believe in the golden rule. We know what is right or wrong. There are state and federal laws. But, as it is the church and government are in cahoots for votes (Republican) and in return the church is tax exempt and need not have to pay compensation for their employees among other special benefits which I'm sure I don't know about. I have seen Jerry Farewell tell his congregation who to vote for in a presidential race! Gee, I thought church and state were separate?

But, there you go! And then there are the Fundamentalist Christians brainwashing their little kids with home schooling and religious camps. See the DVD "Jesus Camp". It will break your heart. These poor little kids try so hard to believe and fall in line to be loved. Hell, by the time I got finished watching this documentary I was convinced that there is no god. And these poor little kids cry because they don't believe. This DVD features Minister Fischer from rural Missouri and her Jesus Camp. Bring a tissue!

What the states are getting back!

"No immigration reform. Social security cuts." Schwarzenegger let's loose! He says California used to get 95% back on their tax dollars and now it's 65%.

I'm sure Schwarzenegger is just one of fifty governors with the same complaints. Blunt of Missouri doesn't complain; however, he just keeps cutting benefits.

Our government is so engrossed in this war they created to make money for Halliburton and others, that they only paid attention to that and Bush has gotten himself in so deep he wants even more money to get out! I'd Cheney's Halliburton wants to clean house before 2008 and the opportunity for easy funds for Halliburton gets cut off completely. I love the way Cheney moves Halliburton to Dubai to avoid paying tax money on the tax money he has ripped off from the American citizens.....now go fight our needless war we got ourselves into for profiteering!

That's our government for you...you gotta love 'em

My guess is that the poisoned cat and dog

food was made from poisoned rats! How else would rat poison get into so much of the canned cat and dog food. I bet menu.com corporation got a good deal on some meat. I wonder did they sell it as beef or chicken; or lamb? They probably got the meat at a very cheap price from a third world country. You know to cut cost! I bet that guy who made that deal will lose his job..unless like the government he finds someone else to take the fall. You know, that's what higher-ups do!

But, that probably will never come out. Anyway, I'm just speculating...

You know - everybody is cutting cost by cutting corners!

Remember a few years ago when Firestone skipped few steps while making tires which caused accidents due to blow outs.

And remember when corporations that made artificial hips were cutting corners and skipping the last rinse and leaving oil residue on the artificial hip that would cause them to never adhere to the bone. And to make makers worse, doctors were unaware and would replace the hip prosthesis with the same kind of prothesis not knowing what the problem was. Didn't that prosthesis feel oily to the surgeon? Didn't something not seem right? Is everybody just in a hurry or just plain unethical!

Boy, that one word who never hear much of anymore - ethical! Where have all the ethical people gone? Where's the pride? Where's the honor?

Those were the late 90's and early 2000.

House passes bill to end the war

The house passed the bill. The Senate probably won't and if they do Bush will veto the bill! So what is all the celebration about?

Democratic Rep. John Murtha is irate saying Bush way over extended his budget by 100 billion. Now he wants to House and Senate to dig him out of his hole. The mission has now been accomplished. The house defies president Bush. Bush got himself into a civil war in Iraq. Bush put us in the spot we are in. He already had 4 billion in his supplemental already. The house is going to take care of the troops but now Bush.

Bush complains a salad bar of items was added on the bill. Murtha said those were there already. Murtha said too many contractors in Iraq and that contractors and Bush should show us where the money is going! Finally! Murtha said that there will be no compromise! Bush got us into this war by misleading us. Bush has sent troops into combat ill equipped and ill trained.

The house is going to bring Bush to the table! Frankly! I thought Bush looked a little worried today. I guess Cheney and Rove told him to speak up and face the house. Bush looked scared to me. Worried!

I wonder who will take the next fall? Enron failed. Libby got caught. And Rove may be the next fall guy for this ill ran, crooked as hell, administration.

Made in Communist China

Everything you pick up in the store is made in China. Right?

Now according to CNN's Lou Dobb's report most of the parts of American made planes are made in China now. And starting now Boeing is giving China the instructions so they can make their own planes soon.

Let's see what do we have here? Walgreen's on every corner and many jobs for 6.35 an hour (if that). The American way! And the Republicans fought against rising the minimum wage. Their argument. "What will that do to small businesses; they'll go under?" Unbelievable!

More and more illegal Mexicans are pouring into this country every months. There are 23 million non tax paying Mexican workers here in this country getting free medical help and attending our schools. Oh and now they are getting driver's licenses so they don't have to make their own anymore. And I guess they no longer need a social security number to get a driver's license..like the rest of us do. Or they make one up which just might turn out to be yours.

Don't you wonder where all this is going? I guess the Bush dynasty has a plan? Hopefully!

And builders keep on building huge; I mean huge houses for half a million bucks. Who can afford these houses? Even all the creative financing banks and loan offices are attempting have been defaulting. I guess loan institutions tell people that they can afford a house when they can't. What do they care when they already have your fees off the top and you default. They'll just take the same house and try to finance it again to another unsuspecting person who can't do the math. It's simple math.. your house payment shouldn't be anymore than what you make in one week. In that way of thinking, you have money left over to pay utilities and car payments.

Then there is the issue of huge month to month balances on credit cards that can't possibly get made off. The average balance on any one's credit card is at least 8 to 10 thousand dollars. So, get another card right? Keep that up and you'll lose everything evidently.

So get rid of the big SUV (which is extremely ugly anyway...big is ugly!), the huge house you thought you had to have to one-up your buddies or impress the little lady when really you don't have a pot-to-piss in job to support all of your spending.

And what about retirement? You know it will take at least 1.5 million to live the rest of your life out on when you retire. Oh, you are not going to retire? Well, don't plan for it monetarily and you won't be retiring. You'll be working right along with the Mexicans for the rest of your life because by then, in a few years or twenty, there won't be any decent paying jobs in this country done by Americans.

What amazes me is that no one is doing a checks and balances on the government and their no - contract dealings with 100,000 companies in Iraq who are making money hands over fist. There goes your hard working tax money.

Personally I think the Bush dynasty is gearing up to a New World Order in the Western Hemisphere.

One thing for sure it's never dull. Aggravating as we watch the middle class slip away.. but never dull

M4's are jamming.

and soldiers are complaining yet the government has order more than 100,000 M4's to be delivered next year to the soldiers in Iraq. Oh and there is a huge order for extreme truck like bomb proof tanks vehicles. No wonder Bush is begging for more money.. the companies supply equipment want their money!

Brig. General David Grant (ret) said he used one in Vietnam and yes it jammed on him too. Dobb asked him why keep on ordering them.

Grant thought the reason was money. It would costs an extreme amount to replace these weapons. (Yeah, so what if a few thousand soldiers are killed in the process)

Grant said that there are others weapons out there and that there should be a shoot-out and let the soldiers pick their weapons.

Yet, the penagon wants to skimp on spending money on weapons that do not fail.

Soldiers report that they are having "heart failure" when they squeeze the trigger and nothing happens.. wouldn't you?

Twenty-Three million illegal aliens

will be granted amnesty, if Congress has anything to say about it.

You know what? I'm just suspicious enough to think this is the end product of a deal between Bush and the president of Mexico.

You know old man Bush and cronies are gearing up to the Western Hemisphere New World Order. Oh yes! From the tip of Canada to the bottom point of Argentina. So, I'm sure they are wheeling and dealing already. The Bush dynasty is growing!

I think hiding the truth from American

citizens is just rude! After ten years former Arizona Government Fife Symington admits he did see a UFO in 1997. Which everyone who saw it too refers to as Phoenix Lights.

Now I don't know about you but I would appreciate the "obvious" news to be reported to me on the 6 O'clock news. If the governor denied it at the time and everyone else saw it then he just looks like a fool! It amazes me how stupid these guys in high places this people are...

He made an executive decision to protect the citizens and avoid a possible riot. Is that too funny. Afford a riot! He's the riot!

I think the citizens of Arizona should be insulted and demand to be told the truth when the truth happens. And the governor should feel like a fool!

I believe Symington is coming out with a documentary called "Out of the Blue" with more on the Phoenix Lights" of 1997. He's no longer the governor so now I guess he has to make some money.

I'm sure that there are more intelligent beings "out there" who are looking down on us in more ways than one! They probably think we are a bunch of idiot fools down here on earth. Running around killing each other in war and otherwise like a bunch of idiots. If I was an intelligent being from another galaxy I sure wouldn't want to associate with us fools either.

Guys and their egos! Please don't think or even speak for me...I'll come to my own conclusions - thank you!

I don't you just love the way Bush speaks for the American people? "The American people want this...."! Amazing!

Halliburton moved headquarter to Dubai

Related
What Drew Halliburton to Dubai
The Arab sheikhdom feels more like Las Vegas than like Mecca, and it's economy is red hot

The Houston Petroleum Club, now high atop the city's ExxonMobil building, had always been where oil executives and adventurers gathered to discuss "bidness." But these days, more and more energy executives are meeting at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, where Tiger Woods recently played, to discuss their deals. So, it shouldn't have been too surprising when Halliburton Chairman and CEO David Lesar announced that he was moving the headquarters of the enormous oil construction and logistics company to the business capital of the United Arab Emirates. The rest of the industry was migrating that way already.
But some folks were badly surprised. The move prompted cries of outrage and calls for investigations from some in Congress. Was the move by Halliburton, the bete noire of left-wing blogs, an attempt to evade congressional inquiry? A move to dodge taxes? Halliburton and many business experts say no. But oil industry analysts say U.S. consumers and political leaders should be asking questions about the move, because the answers will inform America's energy policy — or lack of one. Halliburton is not running from its past, but toward the future.
Just look at other major players in Texas oil. Many Houston companies and law firms have already boosted their Middle Eastern presence, including Halliburton's business rivals, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger. Baker Hughes is building a regional headquarters and manufacturing center in the UAE and Schlumberger has a training center. Just one day after Lesar's announcement, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he will attend a three- day celebration marking the opening of permanent buildings at the Texas A&M University at Qatar, set to graduate its first engineering class in 2007 — evidence that the oil and gas industry will be relying on engineers trained in the Middle East as the number of U.S. petroleum engineers continues to fall.
Many of the city's oil and gas companies have a long symbiotic relationship with the Middle East. Indeed, Emirates Airline announced last month that it would set up daily direct flights between Dubai and Houston by the end of this year. The flights will utilize several of the Emirates' 44 recently purchased Boeing 777s and will come equipped with eight private first-class cabins. But that still places top energy executives 17 hours away from what is becoming the new center of the oil industry. Lesar's move shows Halliburton is aware of business customs in much of the Eastern Hemisphere. "It is very important in this part of the world to do business face-to-face," says Amy Myers Jaffe, a Princeton Arabic Studies graduate and current director of Rice University's Energy Program. She adds, "Halliburton is not deleting jobs. They are not closing the office in Houston. They are not moving to the Caymans to escape prosecution. They are adding new elements."
Apart from knowing their clients, says Jaffe, the company has recognized how the petroleum industry is going to look in the coming decades: "Halliburton is looking to the future. [The industry is] moving away from the Seven Sisters, the major oil companies, and towards national oil companies. Between 1970 and 2000, 40% of the increase in oil in the world came from the majors like Shell. [But] in the next 30 years, 90% of the new oil will come from the Middle East and Africa and will not be produced by Exxon and Shell, but by the nationally owned oil companies."
Halliburton's move is a clear sign that American consumers will be relying more and more on oil and gas produced by nationally owned companies, some in emerging democracies like Indonesia where bureaucracies are often unwieldy, others in strife-torn African nations or corrupt former Soviet republics. The move also puts Halliburton's CEO closer to emerging markets in fast-industrializing China and India.
In the past, oil services companies like Halliburton more typically served as subcontractors to the major oil companies, but as the nationally owned oil companies have gained greater market share, the service companies have contracted directly with them. That has boosted service companies' profits and prompted them to shift their operations to the east, closer to the action. Some 38% of Halliburton's $13 billion in oil services revenue came from its Eastern Hemisphere operations last year.
The move, which was greeted as a "powerful statement" by Merrill Lynch industry analyst Alan Lewis, overshadowed a second part of Lesar's announcement: Halliburton stock will be listed on one of the Middle East's stock exchanges. Most analysts believe it will be the Dubai Financial Market. That, says Jaffe, will enable the company to gain access to the vast amount of capital in the region. It also serves a wider purpose: giving regional investors a stake in the stability of global companies. When nationally owned oil companies have been listed on various exchanges, Jaffe says, it has generally led to greater transparency within those companies and motivation to avoid volatility and disruption in geopolitical affairs.
While the Gulf of Mexico remains a vital area for exploration, the shift eastward means the old Energy Capital must diversify. "A lot of us in Houston have been saying that the energy industry in Houston needs to be a lot more innovative," Jaffe said. Energy industry and political leaders are beginning to develop wind energy offshore in the Gulf, and look to other alternatives. From now on, the "bidness" discussions at the Petroleum Club are more likely to focus on new energy technologies like carbon sequestration than wildcatting.

Please view the DVD "Iraq for Sale: War for Profiteering"...then most importantly - react to what you see on that DVD...write your congressman and demand justice and policy change. This is truly a war for profit....it's your tax money that could have been used for your social services but ends up in the tax escaping pockets of Halliburton and many other companies. It's a war for private company profits. Example: "Destroy the truck then ask the government for more money to buy another truck". These companies are wasted government money. bush let's them run business by the "spend plus" method. The more money these private companies "say" they need the more the government gives them. There are no checks and balances. The government is allowing these companies to waste your money. You are being short-changed in the process. This is an atrocity of justice...where are the Democrats. Who is protecting Halliburton? These companies have contacts in the state department and military. Mr Cheney at work...not for you the tax payer.. whose money they are wasting but for these companies he and others are in cahoots with...probably politicians too from "both" sides of the isle. "No bid contracts to Halliburton". Paybacks from Cheney, probably for Cheney.

Halliurton's stock has gone way up and you, the tax payer are being ripped off. Privatizing a war.. Gee, where do you think what country Bush, Cheney and their companies will end up in next before election time in 2008.. Iran?

Now, here is where Hilliary Clinton lost me.. I heard her say we should have sent troops to Iran when Bush wanted to send more troops 21,000, to be exact, to Iraq. Well, that number already has risen to at least 30,000. But, are the Democrats in on this too?

Did Hilliary slip up when she said we should send troops to Iran. Yeah, lets move the war to Iran not so all these companies can stick more of your hard earning, benefit decreasing, money into their pockets. The hell with you, the ordinary citizen.

And the hell with your job. Don't piss Cheney off, he will send your job overseas to some tax evading third world country. He'll fire your ass! He'll get rid of your job and continue to slip more Mexicans in to work for pennies.

Have a nice day! And beware of daddy Bush's Society for Prosperity Proposal which includes uniting the whole of the Western Hemisphere. Yes, anything initiated by daddy Bush, I don't trust. Yes, we are to join forces with Canada, and Mexico and beyond down to Brazil. Canadians are afraid that their cheap medications and health care will cease to exist. And people in Venezuela hate the Bush's already.. so I don't know where this is going.

The future a two hemisphere government. The new world order headed by Bush?

Blackwater

Jeremy Scahill reports on the Bush Administration’s growing dependence on private security forces such as Blackwater USA and efforts in Congress to rein them in. This article is adapted from his new book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Nation Books).
On September 10, 2001, before most Americans had heard of Al Qaeda or imagined the possibility of a “war on terror,” Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the podium at the Pentagon to deliver one of his first major addresses as Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush. Standing before the former corporate executives he had tapped as his top deputies overseeing the high-stakes business of military contracting–many of them from firms like Enron, General Dynamics and Aerospace Corporation–Rumsfeld issued a declaration of war.
“The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America,” Rumsfeld thundered. “It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk.” He told his new staff, “You may think I’m describing one of the last decrepit dictators of the world…. [But] the adversary’s closer to home,” he said. “It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy.” Rumsfeld called for a wholesale shift in the running of the Pentagon, supplanting the old DoD bureaucracy with a new model, one based on the private sector. Announcing this major overhaul, Rumsfeld told his audience, “I have no desire to attack the Pentagon; I want to liberate it. We need to save it from itself.”
The next morning, the Pentagon would be attacked, literally, as a Boeing 757–American Airlines Flight 77–smashed into its western wall. Rumsfeld would famously assist rescue workers in pulling bodies from the rubble. But it didn’t take long for Rumsfeld to seize the almost unthinkable opportunity presented by 9/11 to put his personal war–laid out just a day before–on the fast track. The new Pentagon policy would emphasize covert actions, sophisticated weapons systems and greater reliance on private contractors. It became known as the Rumsfeld Doctrine. “We must promote a more entrepreneurial approach: one that encourages people to be proactive, not reactive, and to behave less like bureaucrats and more like venture capitalists,” Rumsfeld wrote in the summer of 2002 in an article for Foreign Affairs titled “Transforming the Military.”
Although Rumsfeld was later thrown overboard by the Administration in an attempt to placate critics of the Iraq War, his military revolution was here to stay. Bidding farewell to Rumsfeld in November 2006, Bush credited him with overseeing the “most sweeping transformation of America’s global force posture since the end of World War II.” Indeed, Rumsfeld’s trademark “small footprint” approach ushered in one of the most significant developments in modern warfare–the widespread use of private contractors in every aspect of war, including in combat.
The often overlooked subplot of the wars of the post-9/11 period is their unprecedented scale of outsourcing and privatization. From the moment the US troop buildup began in advance of the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon made private contractors an integral part of the operations. Even as the government gave the public appearance of attempting diplomacy, Halliburton was prepping for a massive operation. When US tanks rolled into Baghdad in March 2003, they brought with them the largest army of private contractors ever deployed in modern war. By the end of Rumsfeld’s tenure in late 2006, there were an estimated 100,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq–an almost one-to-one ratio with active-duty American soldiers.
To the great satisfaction of the war industry, before Rumsfeld resigned he took the extraordinary step of classifying private contractors as an official part of the US war machine. In the Pentagon’s 2006 Quadrennial Review, Rumsfeld outlined what he called a “road map for change” at the DoD, which he said had begun to be implemented in 2001. It defined the “Department’s Total Force” as “its active and reserve military components, its civil servants, and its contractors–constitut[ing] its warfighting capability and capacity. Members of the Total Force serve in thousands of locations around the world, performing a vast array of duties to accomplish critical missions.” This formal designation represented a major triumph for war contractors–conferring on them a legitimacy they had never before enjoyed.
Contractors have provided the Bush Administration with political cover, allowing the government to deploy private forces in a war zone free of public scrutiny, with the deaths, injuries and crimes of those forces shrouded in secrecy. The Administration and the GOP-controlled Congress in turn have shielded the contractors from accountability, oversight and legal constraints. Despite the presence of more than 100,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq, only one has been indicted for crimes or violations. “We have over 200,000 troops in Iraq and half of them aren’t being counted, and the danger is that there’s zero accountability,” says Democrat Dennis Kucinich, one of the leading Congressional critics of war contracting.
While the past years of Republican monopoly on government have marked a golden era for the industry, those days appear to be ending. Just a month into the new Congressional term, leading Democrats were announcing investigations of runaway war contractors. Representative John Murtha, chair of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense, after returning from a trip to Iraq in late January, said, “We’re going to have extensive hearings to find out exactly what’s going on with contractors. They don’t have a clear mission and they’re falling all over each other.” Two days later, during confirmation hearings for Gen. George Casey as Army chief of staff, Senator Jim Webb declared, “This is a rent-an-army out there.” Webb asked Casey, “Wouldn’t it be better for this country if those tasks, particularly the quasi-military gunfighting tasks, were being performed by active-duty military soldiers in terms of cost and accountability?” Casey defended the contracting system but said armed contractors “are the ones that we have to watch very carefully.” Senator Joe Biden, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, has also indicated he will hold hearings on contractors. Parallel to the ongoing investigations, there are several bills gaining steam in Congress aimed at contractor oversight.
Occupying the hot seat through these deliberations is the shadowy mercenary company Blackwater USA. Unbeknownst to many Americans and largely off the Congressional radar, Blackwater has secured a position of remarkable power and protection within the US war apparatus. This company’s success represents the realization of the life’s work of the conservative officials who formed the core of the Bush Administration’s war team, for whom radical privatization has long been a cherished ideological mission. Blackwater has repeatedly cited Rumsfeld’s statement that contractors are part of the “Total Force” as evidence that it is a legitimate part of the nation’s “warfighting capability and capacity.” Invoking Rumsfeld’s designation, the company has in effect declared its forces above the law–entitled to the immunity from civilian lawsuits enjoyed by the military, but also not bound by the military’s court martial system. While the initial inquiries into Blackwater have focused on the complex labyrinth of secretive subcontracts under which it operates in Iraq, a thorough investigation into the company reveals a frightening picture of a politically connected private army that has become the Bush Administration’s Praetorian Guard.
Blackwater Rising
Blackwater was founded in 1996 by conservative Christian multimillionaire and ex-Navy SEAL Erik Prince–the scion of a wealthy Michigan family whose generous political donations helped fuel the rise of the religious right and the Republican revolution of 1994. At its founding, the company largely consisted of Prince’s private fortune and a vast 5,000-acre plot of land located near the Great Dismal Swamp in Moyock, North Carolina. Its vision was “to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing of firearms and related security training.” In the following years, Prince, his family and his political allies poured money into Republican campaign coffers, supporting the party’s takeover of Congress and the ascension of George W. Bush to the presidency.
While Blackwater won government contracts during the Clinton era, which was friendly to privatization, it was not until the “war on terror” that the company’s glory moment arrived. Almost overnight, following September 11, the company would become a central player in a global war. “I’ve been operating in the training business now for four years and was starting to get a little cynical on how seriously people took security,” Prince told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly shortly after 9/11. “The phone is ringing off the hook now.”
Among those calls was one from the CIA, which contracted Blackwater to work in Afghanistan in the early stages of US operations there. In the ensuing years the company has become one of the greatest beneficiaries of the “war on terror,” winning nearly $1 billion in noncovert government contracts, many of them no-bid arrangements. In just a decade Prince has expanded the Moyock headquarters to 7,000 acres, making it the world’s largest private military base. Blackwater currently has 2,300 personnel deployed in nine countries, with 20,000 other contractors at the ready. It has a fleet of more than twenty aircraft, including helicopter gunships and a private intelligence division, and it is manufacturing surveillance blimps and target systems.
In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina its forces deployed in New Orleans, where it billed the federal government $950 per man, per day–at one point raking in more than $240,000 a day. At its peak the company had about 600 contractors deployed from Texas to Mississippi. Since Katrina, it has aggressively pursued domestic contracting, opening a new domestic operations division. Blackwater is marketing its products and services to the Department of Homeland Security, and its representatives have met with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The company has applied for operating licenses in all US coastal states. Blackwater is also expanding its physical presence inside US borders, opening facilities in Illinois and California.
Its largest obtainable government contract is with the State Department, for providing security to US diplomats and facilities in Iraq. That contract began in 2003 with the company’s $21 million no-bid deal to protect Iraq proconsul Paul Bremer. Blackwater has guarded the two subsequent US ambassadors, John Negroponte and Zalmay Khalilzad, as well as other diplomats and occupation offices. Its forces have protected more than ninety Congressional delegations in Iraq, including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to the latest government contract records, since June 2004 Blackwater has been awarded $750 million in State Department contracts alone. It is currently engaged in an intensive lobbying campaign to be sent into Darfur as a privatized peacekeeping force. Last October President Bush lifted some sanctions on Christian southern Sudan, paving the way for a potential Blackwater training mission there. In January the Washington, DC, representative for southern Sudan’s regional government said he expected Blackwater to begin training the south’s security forces soon.
Since 9/11 Blackwater has hired some well-connected officials close to the Bush Administration as senior executives. Among them are J. Cofer Black, former head of counterterrorism at the CIA and the man who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden after 9/11, and Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General, who was responsible for policing contractors like Blackwater during much of the “war on terror”–something he stood accused of not doing effectively. By the end of Schmitz’s tenure, powerful Republican Senator Charles Grassley launched a Congressional probe into whether Schmitz had “quashed or redirected two ongoing criminal investigations” of senior Bush Administration officials. Under bipartisan fire, Schmitz resigned and signed up with Blackwater.
Despite its central role, Blackwater had largely operated in the shadows until March 31, 2004, when four of its private soldiers in Iraq were ambushed and killed in Falluja. A mob then burned the bodies and dragged them through the streets, stringing up two from a bridge over the Euphrates. In many ways it was the moment the Iraq War turned. US forces laid siege to Falluja days later, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands, inflaming the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day. For most Americans, it was the first they had heard of private soldiers. “People began to figure out this is quite a phenomenon,” says Representative David Price, a North Carolina Democrat, who said he began monitoring the use of private contractors after Falluja. “I’m probably like most Congress members in kind of coming to this awareness and developing an interest in it” after the incident.
What is not so well-known is that in Washington after Falluja, Blackwater executives kicked into high gear, capitalizing on the company’s newfound recognition. The day after the ambush, it hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a K Street lobbying firm run by former senior staffers of then-majority leader Tom DeLay before the firm’s meltdown in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal. A week to the day after the ambush, Erik Prince was sitting down with at least four senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including its chair, John Warner. Senator Rick Santorum arranged the meeting, which included Warner and two other key Republican senators–Appropriations Committee chair Ted Stevens of Alaska and George Allen of Virginia. This meeting followed an earlier series of face-to-faces Prince had had with powerful House Republicans who oversaw military contracts. Among them: DeLay; Porter Goss, chair of the House Intelligence Committee (and future CIA director); Duncan Hunter, chair of the House Armed Services Committee; and Representative Bill Young, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. What was discussed at these meetings remains a secret. But Blackwater was clearly positioning itself to make the most of its new fame. Indeed, two months later, Blackwater was handed one of the government’s most valuable international security contracts, worth more than $300 million.
The firm was also eager to stake out a role in crafting the rules that would govern mercenaries under US contract. “Because of the public events of March 31, [Blackwater’s] visibility and need to communicate a consistent message has elevated here in Washington,” said Blackwater’s new lobbyist Chris Bertelli. “There are now several federal regulations that apply to their activities, but they are generally broad in nature. One thing that’s lacking is an industry standard. That’s something we definitely want to be engaged in.” By May Blackwater was leading a lobbying effort by the private military industry to try to block Congressional or Pentagon efforts to place their forces under the military court martial system.
But while Blackwater enjoyed its new status as a hero in the “war on terror” within the Administration and the GOP-controlled Congress, the families of the four men killed at Falluja say they were being stonewalled by Blackwater as they attempted to understand the circumstances of how their loved ones were killed. After what they allege was months of effort to get straight answers from the company, the families filed a ground-breaking wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater in January 2005, accusing the company of not providing the men with what they say were contractually guaranteed safeguards. Among the allegations: The company sent them on the Falluja mission that day short two men, with less powerful weapons than they should have had and in Pajero jeeps instead of armored vehicles. This case could have far-reaching reverberations and is being monitored closely by the war-contractor industry–former Halliburton subsidiary KBR has even filed an amicus brief supporting Blackwater. If the lawsuit is successful, it could pave the way for a tobacco litigation-type scenario, where war contractors find themselves besieged by legal claims of workers killed or injured in war zones.
As the case has made its way through the court system, Blackwater has enlisted powerhouse Republican lawyers to defend it, among them Fred Fielding, who was recently named by Bush as White House counsel, replacing Harriet Miers; and Kenneth Starr, former Whitewater prosecutor investigating President Clinton, and the company’s current counsel of record. Blackwater has not formally debated the specific allegations in the suit, but what has emerged in its court filings is a series of legal arguments intended to bolster Blackwater’s contention that it is essentially above the law. Blackwater claims that if US courts allow the company to be sued for wrongful death, that could threaten the nation’s war-fighting capacity: “Nothing could be more destructive of the all-volunteer, Total Force concept underlying U.S. military manpower doctrine than to expose the private components to the tort liability systems of fifty states, transported overseas to foreign battlefields,” the company argued in legal papers. In February Blackwater suffered a major defeat when the Supreme Court declined its appeal to hear the Falluja case, paving the way for the state trial–where there would be no cap on damages a jury could award–to proceed.
Congress is beginning to take an interest in this potentially groundbreaking case. On February 7 Representative Henry Waxman chaired hearings of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. While the hearings were billed as looking at US reliance on military contractors, they largely focused on Blackwater and the Falluja incident. For the first time, Blackwater was forced to share a venue with the families of the men killed at Falluja. “Private contractors like Blackwater work outside the scope of the military’s chain of command and can literally do whatever they please without any liability or accountability from the US government,” Katy Helvenston, whose son Scott was one of the Blackwater contractors killed, told the committee. “Therefore, Blackwater can continue accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from the government without having to answer a single question about its security operators.”
Citing the pending litigation, Blackwater’s general counsel, Andrew Howell, declined to respond to many of the charges levied against his company by the families and asked several times for the committee to go into closed session. “The men who went on the mission on March 31, each had their weapons and they had sufficient ammunition,” Howell told the committee, adding that the men were in “appropriate” vehicles. That was sharply disputed by the men’s families, who allege that in order to save $1.5 million Blackwater did not provide the four with armored vehicles. “Once the men signed on with Blackwater and were flown to the Middle East, Blackwater treated them as fungible commodities,” Helvenston told lawmakers in her emotional testimony, delivered on behalf of all four families.
The issue that put this case on Waxman’s radar was the labyrinth of subcontracts underpinning the Falluja mission. Since November 2004 Waxman has been trying to pin down who the Blackwater men were ultimately working for the day of the ambush. “For over eighteen months, the Defense Department wouldn’t even respond to my inquiry,” says Waxman. “When it finally replied last July, it didn’t even supply the breakdown I requested. In fact, it denied that private security contractors did any work at all under the [Pentagon’s contracting program]. We now know that isn’t true.” Waxman’s struggle to follow the money on this one contract involving powerful war contractors like KBR provides a graphic illustration of the secretive nature of the whole war contracting industry.
What is not in dispute regarding the Falluja incident is that Blackwater was working with a Kuwaiti business called Regency under a contract with the world’s largest food services company, Eurest Support Services. ESS is a subcontractor for KBR and another giant war contractor, Fluor, in Iraq under the Pentagon’s LOGCAP contracting program. One contract covering Blackwater’s Falluja mission indicated the mission was ultimately a subcontract with KBR. Last summer KBR denied this. Then ESS wrote Waxman to say the mission was conducted under Fluor’s contract with ESS. Fluor denied that, and the Pentagon told Waxman it didn’t know which company the mission was ultimately linked to. Waxman alleged that Blackwater and the other subcontractors were “adding significant markups” to their subcontracts for the same security services that Waxman believes were then charged to US taxpayers. “It’s remarkable that the world of contractors and subcontractors is so murky that we can’t even get to the bottom of this, let alone calculate how many millions of dollars taxpayers lose in each step of the subcontracting process,” says Waxman.
While it appeared for much of the February 7 hearing that the contract’s provenance would remain obscure, that changed when, at the end of the hearing, the Pentagon revealed that the original contractor was, in fact, KBR. In violation of military policy against LOGCAP contractors’ using private forces for security instead of US troops, KBR had entered into a subcontract with ESS that was protected by Blackwater; those costs were allegedly passed on to US taxpayers to the tune of $19.6 million. Blackwater said it billed ESS $2.3 million for its services, meaning a markup of more than $17 million was ultimately passed on to the government. Three weeks after the hearing, KBR told shareholders it may be forced to repay up to $400 million to the government as a result of an ongoing Army investigation.
It took more than two years for Waxman to get an answer to a simple question: Whom were US taxpayers paying for services? But, as the Falluja lawsuit shows, it is not just money at issue. It is human life.
A Killing on Christmas Eve
While much of the publicity Blackwater has received stems from Falluja, another, more recent incident is attracting new scrutiny. On Christmas Eve inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, an American Blackwater contractor allegedly shot and killed an Iraqi bodyguard protecting a senior Iraqi official. For weeks after the shooting, unconfirmed reports circulated around the Internet that alcohol may have been involved and that the Iraqi was shot ten times in the chest. The story then went that the contractor was spirited out of Iraq before he could be prosecuted. Media inquiries got nowhere–the US Embassy refused to confirm that it was a Blackwater contractor, and the company refused to comment.
Then the incident came up at the February 7 Congressional hearing. As the session was drawing to a close, Representative Kucinich raced back into the room with what he said was a final question. He entered a news report on the incident into the record and asked Blackwater counsel Howell if Blackwater had flown the contractor out of Iraq after the alleged shooting. “That gentleman, on the day the incident occurred, he was off duty,” Howell said, in what was the first official confirmation of the incident from Blackwater. “Blackwater did bring him back to the United States.”
“Is he going to be extradited back to Iraq for murder, and if not, why not?” Kucinich asked.
“Sir, I am not law enforcement. All I can say is that there’s currently an investigation,” Howell replied. “We are fully cooperating and supporting that investigation.”
Kucinich then said, “I just want to point out that there’s a question that could actually make [Blackwater’s] corporate officers accessories here in helping to create a flight from justice for someone who’s committed a murder.”
The War on the Hill
Several bills are now making their way through Congress aimed at oversight and transparency of the private forces that have emerged as major players in the wars of the post-9/11 period. In mid-February Senators Byron Dorgan, Patrick Leahy and John Kerry introduced legislation aimed at cracking down on no-bid contracts and cronyism, providing for penalties of up to twenty years in prison and fines of up to $1 million for what they called “war profiteering.” It is part of what Democrats describe as a multi-pronged approach. “I think there’s a critical mass of us now who are working on it,” says Congressman Price, who represents Blackwater’s home state. In January Price introduced legislation that would expand the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 (MEJA) to include all contractors in a war zone, not just those working for or alongside the armed forces. Most of Blackwater’s work in Iraq, for instance, is contracted by the State Department. Price indicated that the alleged Christmas Eve shooting could be a test case of sorts under his legislation. “I will be following this and I’ll be calling for a full investigation,” he said.
But there’s at least one reason to be wary of this approach: Price’s office consulted with the private military lobby as it crafted the legislation, which has the industry’s strong endorsement. Perhaps that’s because MEJA has been for the most part unenforced. “Even in situations when US civilian law could potentially have been applied to contractor crimes, it wasn’t,” observed P.W. Singer, a leading scholar on contractors. American prosecutors are already strapped for resources in their home districts–how could they be expected to conduct complex investigations in Iraq? Who will protect the investigators and prosecutors? How will they interview Iraqi victims? How could they effectively oversee 100,000 individuals spread across a dangerous war zone? “It’s a good question,” concedes Price. “I’m not saying that it would be a simple matter.” He argues his legislation is an attempt to “put the whole contracting enterprise on a new accountable footing.”
This past fall, taking a different tack–much to the dismay of the industry–Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an Air Force reserve lawyer and former reserve judge, quietly inserted language into the 2007 Defense Authorization, which Bush signed into law, that places contractors under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), commonly known as the court martial system. Graham implemented the change with no public debate and with almost no awareness among the broader Congress, but war contractors immediately questioned its constitutionality. Indeed, this could be a rare moment when mercenaries and civil libertarians are on the same side. Many contractors are not armed combatants; they work in food, laundry and other support services. While the argument could be made that armed contractors like those working for Blackwater should be placed under the UCMJ, Graham’s change could result in a dishwasher from Nepal working for KBR being prosecuted like a US soldier. On top of all this, the military has enough trouble policing its own massive force and could scarcely be expected to monitor an additional 100,000 private personnel. Besides, many contractors in Iraq are there under the auspices of the State Department and other civilian agencies, not the military.
In an attempt to clarify these matters, Senator Barack Obama introduced comprehensive new legislation in February. It requires clear rules of engagement for armed contractors, expands MEJA and provides for the DoD to “arrest and detain” contractors suspected of crimes and then turn them over to civilian authorities for prosecution. It also requires the Justice Department to submit a comprehensive report on current investigations of contractor abuses, the number of complaints received about contractors and criminal cases opened. In a statement to The Nation, Obama said contractors are “operating with unclear lines of authority, out-of-control costs and virtually no oversight by Congress. This black hole of accountability increases the danger to our troops and American civilians serving as contractors.” He said his legislation would “re-establish control over these companies,” while “bringing contractors under the rule of law.”
Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House intelligence committee, has been a leading critic of the war contracting system. Her Iraq and Afghanistan Contractor Sunshine Act, introduced in February, which bolsters Obama’s, boils down to what Schakowsky sees as a long overdue fact-finding mission through the secretive contracting bureaucracy. Among other provisions, it requires the government to determine and make public the number of contractors and subcontractors (at any tier) that are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan; any host country’s, international or US laws that have been broken by contractors; disciplinary actions taken against contractors; and the total number of dead and wounded contractors. Schakowsky says she has tried repeatedly over the past several years to get this information and has been stonewalled or ignored. “We’re talking about billions and billions of dollars–some have estimated forty cents of every dollar [spent on the occupation] goes to these contractors, and we couldn’t get any information on casualties, on deaths,” says Schakowsky. “It has been virtually impossible to shine the light on this aspect of the war and so when we discuss the war, its scope, its costs, its risks, they have not been part of this whatsoever. This whole shadow force that’s been operating in Iraq, we know almost nothing about. I think it keeps at arm’s length from the American people what this war is all about.”
While not by any means a comprehensive total of the number of contractor casualties, 770 contractor deaths and 7,761 injured in Iraq as of December 31, 2006, were confirmed by the Labor Department. But that only counts those contractors whose families applied for benefits under the government’s Defense Base Act insurance. Independent analysts say the number is likely much higher. Blackwater alone has lost at least twenty-seven men in Iraq. And then there’s the financial cost: Almost $4 billion in taxpayer funds have been paid for private security forces in Iraq, according to Waxman. Yet even with all these additional forces, the military is struggling to meet the demands of a White House bent on military adventurism.
A week after Donald Rumsfeld’s rule at the Pentagon ended, US forces had been stretched so thin by the “war on terror” that former Secretary of State Colin Powell declared “the active Army is about broken.” Rather than rethinking its foreign policies, the Administration forged ahead with plans for a troop “surge” in Iraq, and Bush floated a plan to supplement the military with a Civilian Reserve Corps in his January State of the Union address. “Such a corps would function much like our military Reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them,” Bush said. The President, it seemed, was just giving a fancy new title to something the Administration has already done with its “revolution” in military affairs and unprecedented reliance on contractors. Yet while Bush’s proposed surge has sparked a fierce debate in Congress and among the public, the Administration’s increasing reliance on private military contractors has gone largely undebated and underreported.
“The increasing use of contractors, private forces or as some would say ‘mercenaries’ makes wars easier to begin and to fight–it just takes money and not the citizenry,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has sued contractors for alleged abuses in Iraq. “To the extent a population is called upon to go to war, there is resistance, a necessary resistance to prevent wars of self-aggrandizement, foolish wars and in the case of the United States, hegemonic imperialist wars. Private forces are almost a necessity for a United States bent on retaining its declining empire.”
With talk of a Civilian Reserve Corps and Blackwater promoting the idea of a privatized “contractor brigade” to work with the military, war critics in Congress are homing in on what they see as a sustained, undeclared escalation through the use of private forces. “‘Surge’ implies a bump that has a beginning and an end,” says Schakowsky. “Having a third or a quarter of [the forces] present on the ground not even part of the debate is a very dangerous thing in our democracy, because war is the most critical thing that we do.”
Indeed, contractor deaths are not counted in the total US death count, and their crimes and violations go undocumented and unpunished, further masking the true costs of the war. “When you’re bringing in contractors whom the law doesn’t apply to, the Geneva Conventions, common notions of morality, everything’s thrown out the window,” says Kucinich. “And what it means is that these private contractors are really an arm of the Administration and its policies.”
Kucinich says he plans to investigate the potential involvement of private forces in so-called “black bag,” “false flag” or covert operations in Iraq. “What’s the difference between covert activities and so-called overt activities which you have no information about? There’s no difference,” he says. Kucinich also says the problems with contractors are not simply limited to oversight and transparency. “It’s the privatization of war,” he says. The Administration is “linking private war contractor profits with warmaking. So we’re giving incentives for the contractors to lobby the Administration and the Congress to create more opportunities for profits, and those opportunities are more war. And that’s why the role of private contractors should be sharply limited by Congress.”

Rev Albert Mohler

do you need the "hormone treatment"? Are you gay? Why should humans be altered and treated to suit your bias and prejudices. So now you want to play god? I think Albert Mohler is gay and hates that which he is.. otherwise why would he care so much? He is asking Christian parents if they knew there unborn baby was gay..would they do the hormone treatment to "correct" that baby if the treatment was available.

Even Evangelical Christians are speaking out about this treatment for unborn determined gays because EC's think that homosexuality is a "choice". Boy, are these people way off base? How stupid! Would anyone really choose to be ostracized from the ignorance of society and family. Would anyone really choose to be gay?

Actually, I am very glad that I am gay. I'm so gay I think heterosexual couples look "odd" together. They are so mismatched. Like, what's in it for her?

Listen to "The secret"! Watch the DVD! "like attracts like"! There you go! Maybe people can't find their soul mates because they are searching on the "wrong team"?

Why is homosexuality so hated? If you are not gay and are happy with your straightness..then why bother with us. Why pick on gay people? I don't care if you are straight Mr. Mohler, or Mr Haggard (your cured now right? Bullshit!).

I say if you are straight - fine! Just don't deny any citizen their civil rights and that would included allowing gays to marry so we too can collect the 1000 or more legal rights that married couples have. Either that are give us all the tax breaks that religious organizations get...what a crock! The government gives religious groups every tax break there is.. and then the religious groups have the audacity to come after us.

Well, here is the bottom line. They have to have something to fix otherwise there would be no need for religion. Again... it's all bullshit people!

Homosexuals are merely being used as diversions against real political issues and the war or as something to be fixed by religious groups. And of course you already knew this.. didn't you?