Friday, June 11, 2004

My apologies to Juan José Millás, but I just gotta let my non-spanish-speaking brethren in on this (courtesy of Altavista's Babel Fish Translation):

    An ingenuous one
    Juan José Millás
    I did not saw to anybody shake the newspaper in the air horrified before the idea that everything was allowed. And nevertheless, the news said that the legal advisers of the White House had elaborated a report that adjusts like a glove to the spiritual measures of Bush, and according to which the torture is just when the president by antonomasia orders. This man, that or had the life of its subjects (and its subjects we are all the inhabitants of the planet) when it came to him in desire, could not nevertheless take the nails to them, empalar them or apply to them current without the danger to face the rigors of the law, which was, obviously, a contradiction. For a year, thanks to that report of high moral seam, have not been having limits in which it talks about the use, to the manipulation or the partition of the bodies of his same types. What disproportion between the amount of being able and the shortage of scruples.
    Everything is allowed. I did not saw to anybody running by the streets shaking with horror the leaf of the newspaper. I did not do it either, by fear to perhaps seem ingenuous or to give the impression that she was not of return. But he was not it, that one is the truth, I am not it. How it was going to imagine, after the centuries, that I belong to a culture without moral limitations, I have been months fighting not to accustom to me to Guantánamo, Powell, Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice; making exercises so that the alarms go off to me when I hear call political errors to pure crimes; forcing to me to that the end hairs are put whenever I open the family album and I see England soldier playing the dogs with an Arab... And now it is that all that was written in the Tables of the Law.
    Everything is allowed. In fact, days ago, the Pope, that shares with Bush the representation of Dios, SA, in the Earth, received its partner, by that let itself decorate at the end of "cordial" interview. The same Pope that excomulga to violet children whom they dare to abort, accepts medals of the author of a manual which it attributes on the creatures competitions that would put the meat of hen to the very same Creator. I am an ingenuous one, yes, and am terrified, but I do not want that innocence nor the fright take off to me neither.
    Published in the Friday 11 June 2004 issue of El País.


If I find some moments I'll make it a bit more reader-friendly. But I hope you get the gist of it. Peace.
LAWeekly! JUNE 11 - 17, 2004 Reagan's Curtain Call

MARC COOPER sheds no tears as he tells the truth about Ronald Reagan. JOHN POWERS dissects the master of image. HAROLD MEYERSON remembers the day Reagan crowned Pali High’s homecoming queen and then, 15 years later, fired the nation’s air traffic controllers. STEVEN MIKULAN lines up in Simi Valley for a 90-second glimpse of the casket. And NIKKI FINKE recalls her days as Reagan’s jinx and reminds us that Bonzo was double-dealing and selectively forgetting long before Iran-Contra. + David Corn: No Fall Guy: Ex-CIA Chief George Tenet left plenty of incriminating clues pointing to George Bush’s blunders on Iraq. BY DAVID CORN
While soldiers are dying in Iraq, Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton has defrauded the government of millions and charged for meals for the troops which were never delivered. Today, we're trying to raise $1.1 million to air a new ad in swing states that calls the Bush White House on its cronyism with Halliburton. Can you contribute to get it on the air?


Dear MoveOn member,


There are lots of reasons that things are going south in Iraq. President Bush alienated
the international community, lied to the world about the threat of
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, failed to plan for reconstruction .
. . and the list goes on. But there's another less talked-about reason
that things are turning out so badly: President Bush and Vice President
Cheney simply can't resist a chance to help their corporate friends
make a buck, even when it undermines the troops.


Today, we're launching
a new ad to call the Bush Administration on its ties to the
scandal-plagued company Halliburton. In just a year in Iraq,
Halliburton employees have accepted $6 million in illegal kickbacks
(1), the company overcharged taxpayers millions for gas (2), and
charged hundreds of millions of dollars for meals for our troops that
were never delivered (3). It's a perfect example of how Bush and
Cheney's taste for corporate cronyism has weakened our country and cost
taxpayers billions.


We know from polling
that for many people the Halliburton debacle illustrates a core
weakness in the Bush program, and helps convince independent voters to
vote against Bush. That's why it's so important that we get this ad,
which hammers that point home, in front of as many people as possible.
If we can raise $1.1 million, we can run the ad deep for a week in a
number of the key "battleground" states. Please contribute what you can
to help us get it on the air today at:



http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/halliburton.html?id=2927-3261555-nI9v7TRaAbVzQcB6wlOTxw


On that page, you can also read a full script of the ad and take a look at the story boards.


Revelations regarding
Halliburton's unethical and at times illegal behavior continue to pop
up at a regular pace. But perhaps more worrisome are indications that
the Bush administration isn't just turning a blind eye to Halliburton's
corrupt business practices -- it's actively helping the company along.
For example, Time Magazine exposed last week that newly disclosed
internal Pentagon emails suggest that the office of Vice President Dick
Cheney was instrumental in sealing an $18 BILLION no-bid contract for
the Vice President's former company (4).


Nor does Halliburton's
track record end at fraud. In a Pentagon audit, Halliburton was warned
that its food service facilities which serve our troops in Iraq were
dangerously unsanitary, with "blood all over the floor" of its
kitchens, "dirty pans," and "rotting meats ... and vegetables." (5) As
Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) put it, Halliburton is ultimately "a
company that arrogantly is overcharging when they can get away with it
and not providing the quality of service that they agreed to do." (6)


Vice President Dick
Cheney still holds hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stock
options in the company.(7) So it's hardly surprising that the
Administration's response has been anemic, even when faced with clear
evidence that the company is bilking taxpayers.


That's why we need to get this ad on the air. Can you contribute to make that happen? Go to:


http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/halliburton.html?id=2927-3261555-nI9v7TRaAbVzQcB6wlOTxw


Sincerely,


--Eli Pariser

  MoveOn PAC

  June 10th, 2004


Footnotes:


1. Halliburton admits $6m kickbacks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3425043.stm


2. Halliburton: $61M Overcharge?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/12/politics/main588216.shtml


3. Halliburton Grilled Over Meals

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/02/eveningnews/main597566.shtml


4. Time reports Cheney hand in contract

http://www.iht.com/articles/522594.html


5. Contractor served troops dirty food in dirty kitchens

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/12/14/2003079545


6. See 5, above.


7. Cheney may still have Halliburton ties

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/25/news/companies/cheney/?cnn=yes

PAID FOR BY MoveOn PAC

P.O. Box 9218, Berkeley, CA 94709

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

t r u t h o u t - Bernard Weiner | Bush's 2004 Scandals for Dummies: "Bush's 2004 Scandals for Dummies By Bernard Weiner The Crisis PapersTuesday 08 June 2004"