Drug can dampen down bad memories

Scientists believe they have found a way to dampen down the impact of bad memories in people's brains.

A US and Canadian team used a drug called propranolol to target unwanted memories, while leaving others intact.

They injected the drug, which is more often used to treat heart patients, while a volunteer was asked to recall a painful memory.

The Journal of Psychiatric Research study found that this seemed to disrupt the way the memory was then stored.

Fear reactions are there to protect people from danger in the future
Professor Chris Brewin, of University College London

The researchers, from McGill University, in Montreal, and Harvard University in Boston, hope their work could lead to new treatments for patients with psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress.

However, others have warned the research is still at a very early stage - and expressed concern that it could potentially be abused easily.

The researchers treated 19 crash or rape victims for 10 days with a drug, or a placebo.

The volunteers were asked to recall their memories of a traumatic event that had happened 10 years earlier.

A week later the researchers found that those people who were given a shot of propranolol showed fewer signs of stress, such as raised heart rate, when recalling their trauma.

The researchers believe that memories are initially stored in the brain in a malleable, fluid state before becoming hard-wired into the circuitry.

Then, when they are recalled, they once again become fluid - and capable of being altered.

They believe propranolol disrupts the biochemical pathways that allow a memory to "harden" after it has been recalled.

More work needed

In a separate study, a New York University team said they had successfully erased a single memory from the brains of rats while leaving the rest of their memory intact.

Dr Monica Thompson, a consultant clinical psychologist at London's Traumatic Stress Clinic, stressed that post traumatic stress disorder was a complex condition with many other symptoms other than bad memories.

She said that even if a treatment successfully dampened down bad memories patients could still be left with potentially debilitating symptoms, such as high fear levels.

Professor Chris Brewin, of University College London, said the research was still at a very early stage, and much more work was needed to demonstrate that it could lead to tangible benefits.

"One also does not know what effect such a drug could have in the long term," he said.

"After all, fear reactions are there to protect people from danger in the future."

Currently listening : The Unsustainable Lifestyle By Beauty Pill Release date: 16 March, 2004

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Former UN Weapons Inspector: "WMD claims were false, and in some instances fabricated"

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/06/iraqi-wmd-case-.html

Okay, I know that a faux bomb threat of huge nonsensical scope was reportedly about to take down all of London, but here is the real news - in cased you missed it for lack of coverage an op-ed in NYT, by Richard Butler

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/opinion/29butler.html?_r=2&ovef=slogin&oref=slogin :

"TODAY, the United States and Britain will ask the United Nations Security Council to abolish the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission — the organization it created to oversee the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

On the surface, the proposal appears to be good housekeeping. After all, the work of the commission seems to be done. Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Why prop up an entity that requires millions of dollars a year to run? (The money comes from Iraqi oil.)

In fact, it's not so simple. Saddam Hussein's purported possession of weapons of mass destruction was at the heart of the American and British justification for invading Iraq five years ago. We now know that those claims were false, and in some instances fabricated.

Actually, we knew that then, too. Yes, Saddam Hussein had demonstrated a deep attachment to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. United Nations inspectors collected ample evidence of that attachment.

But those of us involved with United Nations inspections — the group I headed was the predecessor of the imperiled weapons commission — also knew that virtually all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been removed. This judgment was confirmed by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei.

Which is why we would not be wrong to be suspicious of the action proposed by the United States and Britain, which overruled the judgment of the United Nations in their decision to go to war in Iraq. Their decision demonstrates the danger of substituting national intelligence for the assessments assembled by an independent, international body. While individual governments will always track and analyze weaponry, their own national conclusions can never form a credible basis for action by the international community, especially for enforcement actions."

Wait, wait, wait... The US and UK want to eliminate a UN body that is a watchdog for WMD? And wait, wait, US and UK both "in some cases fabricated" WMD intel on Iraq? Well, this clearly must be written by some lone pundit of little value. That is, until you look at his name. Who is Rich Butler?

"Richard Butler was the head of the United Nations Special Commission to disarm Iraq from 1997 to 1999."

Now why do you suppose the US and UK want UNSCOM disbanded? I suggest you send this op-ed to every reporter and blogger you can think of. This is incredible and damning. And really, this is actual news.

Currently listening : Yellowcake By Yellowcake Release date: 23 January, 2007

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PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE: ALL-OPTICAL MAGNETIC RECORDING & ROOM-TEMPERATURE NANOLASER

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 830 June 27, 2007 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein
www.aip.org/pnu

ALL-OPTICAL MAGNETIC RECORDING has been demonstrated by scientists
at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Instead of
using the customary magnetic read head to flip the magnetic
orientation of a tiny domain they use the fields present in a short
burst of circularly polarized light. Why use light instead of a
magnet? Because the magnet is relatively slow and because the
magnetic field in the light pulse is intrinsically strong-up to 5
Tesla. The pulses are perpendicularly incident on the storage
medium and the helicity of the light pulse (whether the polarization
is rotating left-handedly or right-handedly relative to the pulse*s
forward direction) establishes whether the orientation set in the
domain will be up or down, or digital terms, a 1 or a 0. The
orientation of the domain (writing a bit) is accomplished partly
through the light*s magnetism and partly through the localized
heating by the pulse, which enhances the domain*s magnetic
susceptibility. The bit can be reversed with light of the opposite
polarization. The light pulse is so carefully focused that it
addresses only one domain at a time (see figure at
http://www.aip.org/png/2007/281.htm). The speed of the writing
process is set by the duration of the laser pulse, 40 fsec,
upsetting certain suggestions, made not so many years ago, that the
speed of recording in optical medium could not shrink below a
picosecond. True, the size of the domain is 5 microns, which is
rather large. However, one of the researchers, Daniel Stanciu
(s.stanciu@science.ru.nl, 31-24-365-3094), says he expects the
domain size to get down to about 100 nm. He believes that the
all-optical approach will eventually be the way of achieving the
fastest writing of data in a magnetic medium. (Stanciu et al.,
Physical Review Letters, upcoming article)

A HIGHLY EFFICIENT ROOM-TEMPERATURE NANOLASER has been demonstrated
by scientists at the Yokohama National University in Japan. Made of
a semiconductor material known as gallium indium arsenide phosphate
(GaInAsP), the overall device has a width of several microns
(millionths of a meter), while the part of the device where laser
light actually gets produced has dimensions at the nanometer scale
in all directions. The nanolaser produces steady continuous streams
of near-infrared light and uses only a microwatt of power, one of
the smallest operating powers ever achieved. The design should be
useful in future miniaturized circuits containing optical devices.
The laser's small size and efficiency were made possible by
employing a design, first demonstrated at the California Institute
of Technology in 1999, known as a photonic-crystal laser. In this
design, researchers drill a repeating pattern of holes through the
laser material. This pattern is called a "photonic crystal." The
researchers deliberately introduced an irregularity, or "defect,"
into the crystal pattern, for example by slightly shifting the
positions of two holes. Together, the photonic crystal pattern and
the defect prevent light waves of most colors (frequencies) from
existing in the structure, with the exception of a small band of
frequencies that can exist in the region near the defect.
By operating at room temperature and in a mode where well-defined
laser light is emitted stably and continuously, the new nanolaser
from Yokohama National University distinguishes itself from previous
designs. According to Yokohama researcher Toshihiko Baba
(baba@ynu.ac.jp), the new nanolas
er can be operated in two modes
depending what kind of "Q" value is chosen. Q refers to quality
factor, the ability for an oscillating system to continue before
running out of energy.
Nanolasers operated in a high-Q mode (20,000) will be useful for
optical devices in tiny chips (optical integrated circuits). In a
moderate-Q (1500) configuration the nanolaser requires an extremely
small amount of external power to bring the device to the threshold
of producing laser light. In this near-thresholdless operation, the
same technology will permit the emission of very low light levels,
even single photons. (Nozaki et al., Optics Express, 11 June 2007
issue, full text available at
http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?id=138211; picture and
extended writeup at
http://osa.org/news/pressroom/release/06.2007/Nanolaser.aspx)

***********
PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE is a digest of physics news items arising
from physics meetings, physics journals, newspapers and
magazines, and other news sources. It is provided free of charge
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Currently listening : The Police (2CD Anthology) By The Police Release date: 05 June, 2007

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SEXUAL ORIENTATION: WHEN IT MATTERS AND WHEN IT DOESN'T

By Carolyn Baker

June 28, 2007

In early 2005 in anticipation of my sixtieth birthday, I began working on an autobiography. Certainly, I reasoned, now entering my sixth decade, I should be putting in ink my reflections on life as I officially become a senior citizen. Following the publication of three books and countless articles, it seemed that my "memoirs" was the very next step.

Little did I realize that in the fall of 2006, just a few weeks after the release of my third book U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED, a bombshell breaking news story that would hit a pivotal nerve in my own personal history would compel me to integrate the almost-finished memoirs with commentary on the story, not merely from my intellect but from my personal life experience. That news item was the revelation that fundamentalist Christian icon, Pastor Ted Haggard of the New Life Church of Colorado Springs, Colorado, ostensibly rabidly homophobic, had been involved for three years in a sexual relationship with another man.

Memoirs just lying around, serving no purpose except navel-gazing, are easily ignored and postponed for "some other day." But when one's autobiography so eerily parallels breaking news on CNN, one should consider taking it out, dusting it off, and disclosing to the world that human beings do not have to live a lie in order to follow the calling of their hearts in pursuit of the sacred.

Every day of Ted Haggard's exposure in the news, I watched, listened, and read obsessively, and as the reader explores this book, he/she will soon understand why. Ted Haggard's story is in so many ways, my story, but with one colossal difference: At the age of twenty-six, I realized that I was not willing to a live a lie for the rest of my life and came out as a lesbian to myself and to the world. Had I not made that decision, I might have perpetrated almost exactly the same excruciating deception on loved ones, colleagues, and admirers as he did.

Thus, I set to work on the completing of my new book which will be released in about two weeks, Coming Out Of Fundamentalist Christianity: An Autobiography Affirming Sensuality, Social Justice, and The Sacred. In the Appendix section of this book the reader will find my November, 2006 article "Ted Haggard And Fundamentalist Christian Soul-Murder" that was posted on a number of Internet sites, including my own. It ultimately set in motion the completion of my autobiography.

I have taken enormous risks in writing my story, as well as my opinions regarding the American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) communities. This book will strike raw nerves among homophobes and anti-gay members of the religious community, and LGBT folks may not appreciate my taking our community to task politically, but the story must be told, and for me, it cannot be told without dividing the book into two parts: 1) My story, and 2) Our World. The anguish of my coming out process was exacerbated by a childhood devoid of social, political, or economic justice, and my notions about them today, inextricably connected with my sexual orientation, have determined the paradigm by which I intend to live the rest of my life. In other words, for me, the personal and political cannot be polarized, and anyone who knows that at a cellular level, also knows the distressing path that consciously integrating the two necessitates.

Except for mine, the names of all persons in the book have been changed in order to protect the innocent and the guilty. Two of my college years were spent in a fundamentalist Christian bible college which to this day I deplore, yet without its painful evisceration of my innocence, I would not become the person I now cherish. As most fundamentalist Christian colleges are, in my opinion, it was nothing less than a hothouse for blossoming homosexuals which it delighted in confining in the closet then castigating when impetuous latency could no longer be repressed.

This book is entering print as one of the most corrupt and conservative political administrations in the history of the United States is about to leave office. For me, it has been excruciating to witness its machinations for the past seven years, mirroring to me so much of what was an inhumane upbringing and what was so emotionally and spiritually devastating in the first half of my life. Yet, it is one thing to have grown up in a household terrorized by it and quite another to watch the same dogma, hypocrisy, and neo-fascist ideology perpetrated on an entire nation.

Approximately six weeks after the resignation of Ted Haggard from New Life Church, youth leadership minister, Christopher Beard of New Life, also resigned in disgrace over "sexual misconduct" the orientation of which at this writing is unknown. On Monday, December 11, 2006, the Associated Press broke the story of the disclosure and subsequent resignation of Englewood, Colorado's Rev. Paul Barnes, pastor of another Rocky Mountain megachurch who confessed to his congregation that he had been involved in a number of homosexual relationships and was stepping down. I winced as I heard one sentence from Barnes' mea culpa, so reminiscent of my pre-coming out years: "I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. ... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away."

Was 2006 just a bad year for Colorado Christian fundamentalists? A series of coincidences, perhaps?

Or maybe December, 2006 was a bad year for fundamentalists in general as the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on the 20th that church leaders announced that Rev. Paul Williams, a Bellevue Baptist Church staffer for 34 years, had been placed on paid leave pending an investigation regarding a "moral failure"—a disgustingly vague and abbreviated description of the pastor's alleged sexual abuse of a relative some seventeen years prior. Supposedly aware of the incident, Senior Minister, Steven Gaines, had done nothing and complicitly assumed that "the incident had been resolved." Fundamentalists would have us believe that only in the Roman Catholic Church is sexual abuse rampant and that only there does the non-offending clergy collude with it by moving priests from one location to another, thereby protecting their dirty little secrets.

On the contrary, I have for decades believed and publicly stated that there is something inherent in Christian fundamentalism that attracts individuals who are fleeing the impact of coming to terms with their sexual orientation, dealing with their own experiences of being sexually abused, or confronting other issues regarding sexuality and that fundamentalism not only draws such individuals but fosters their hypocrisy, thereby exacerbating their suffering and the suffering of everyone close to them. While a thorough exploration of this hypothesis is yet another book in itself, my book will endeavor to shed light by offering my own experiences and reflections on them.

In my experience and that of countless others, fundamentalist Christianity is intrinsically spiritually abusive, and I have painstakingly explained why in the pages of my book. Moreover, its homophobic and bigoted agenda has so infiltrated and influenced the pillars of power in the current fascist regime that governs America that all LGBT individuals residing in the United States need to be vigilant regarding the eroding and elimination of their civil liberties as a result of that reality.

Here is yet another example of how history repeats itself. Replete with homosexual activity, the Third Reich officially condemned homosexuality and hypocritically relegated homosexuals to the same status in German society as Jews. In fact, during the height of Hitler's reign, homosexuals were required to wear pink triangles on their clothing, just as Jews were required to wear yellow stars on theirs. As I listen to the ranting of homophobic hatemongers such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Albert Mohler, and Janet Parshall, I hear not the essence of Christ's teachings, but the deranged blathering of ideological neo-Nazis who would delight in slapping a pink triangle on me and shipping me off to a death camp.

In terms of the civil liberties of lesbian and gay individuals in the United States, these people are not harmless, or merely over-exuberant true believers. In his brilliant article, "For The Christian Right, Gay-Hating Is Just The Start," Harvard Divinity School graduate Chris Hedges states:

These attacks mask a sinister agenda that has nothing to do with sexuality. It has to do with power. The radical Christian right -- the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- has built a binary worldview of command and submission wherein male leaders, who cannot be questioned and claim to speak for God, are in control and all others must follow. Any lifestyle outside the traditional model of male and female is a threat to this hierarchical male power structure. Women who do not depend on men for their identity and their sexuality, who live outside a male power relationship, challenge this pervasive cult of masculinity, as do men who find tenderness and love with other men as equals. The lifestyle of gays and lesbians is intolerable to the Christian right because its existence is a threat to the movement's chain of command, one they insist was ordained by God.

In the Appendix of my book I have included an extraordinary article "The Psychology Of Christian Fundamentalism," by Professor Emeritus, Walter Davis, Ohio State University, in which the author's extraordinary insights into the emotional underpinnings of fundamentalism address that "something" in it that backfired, and in my opinion always does, on the three Colorado clerical homophobes and one Southern Baptist sex offender. "Morality for the fundamentalist," says Davis, "is not about a life of charity or the pursuit of justice or the need to open oneself to the depth of human suffering. It's about avoiding certain sexual sins and fixating on that dimension of life to the virtual exclusion of everything else."

Because I am also an historian, I want to emphasize that fundamentalist Christianity as we know it today in the United States is a relatively new phenomenon in the Christian religion. From the official establishment of the Christian Church dating from the fourth century until the present time, myriad doctrines, traditions, practices, and biblical interpretations have existed in the Christian religion. Within the past two hundred years, the so-called mainstream denominations that were born in America's Great Awakenings and some that evolved from the religious communities of European settlers—Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran—have experienced diminished membership as the evangelical or fundamentalist factions of Christianity have skyrocketed in popularity and enrollment.

In this book I use evangelical and fundamentalist interchangeably. Both adhere to clearly delineated, strict "fundamentals" resulting from a literal interpretation of the bible, and whether one identifies as an evangelical or a fundamentalist, evangelizing or attempting to recruit believers into one's religion is pivotal in accomplishing the mission of fundamentalism/evangelism, namely, enlarging Christ's church on earth. "Fundamentalist" is a more nineteenth-century term associated with specific "fundamentals" that conservative Christian literalists believe are the backbone of Christianity whereas "evangelical", a twentieth-century word may have been chosen to cosmetically alter the presentation of fundamentalist teachings, thereby making them appear more contemporary and less stodgy. Not wishing to evoke images of sweaty, red-faced Victorian ranters such as William Jennings Bryan or Billy Sunday, evangelical ministers adorned with blow-dried hairstyles and Rolex watches, their sermons preceded with hip-hop rhythms, synthesizer extravaganzas, and digital light shows, may not be any less theologically pedantic than their predecessors, but they are decidedly more marketable.

Coming Out Of Fundamentalist Christianity is not merely an autobiography—one woman's coming out journey, but is intended to facilitate confluence between the integration of sexuality and spirituality and how individuals in the LGBT community struggling with that challenge, influence the society at large and are influenced by it, endeavoring to discern our limitations, our infinite opportunities, and the difference between them. In the Appendix the reader will find in addition to my article on Ted Haggard, an extensive list of articles, books, documentaries, and websites pertaining to sexual orientation research, spirituality, and issues social, economic, political, and environmental justice.

On February 6, 2007 , our collective intelligence was profoundly insulted with Ted Haggard's "official" pronouncement that he is "completely heterosexual." Even graduates of repulsively-onerous, long-term "ex-gay" therapy implied that this declaration by Haggard didn't even pass the laugh test. Not only was American fundamentalism doing damage control, but once more, Ted Haggard opted to wallow in the same lie he has lived for over five decades.

Dr. Robin Meyers, United Church Of Christ minister and author of WHY THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT IS WRONG: A Minister's Manifesto For Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future, states in his chapter on homosexuality:

Religious fanaticism itself is a symptom of compensatory behavior. The most rigid, the most compulsive, the most paranoid religious devotees are often hiding their own dark secrets. They seek the rigidity of authoritarian systems in order to cope with their own feelings of shame. Their inner conflicts are turned outward, and the collateral damage is all-too apparent….In my own ministry, I have noticed an unmistakable pattern, and it is more than mere coincidence. The most homophobic people I've ever met do not live comfortably inside their own sexual skin.

I am well aware that despite the vast sums of money and energy spent by Christian fundamentalism to convince its followers and the rest of the world that its dogma holds all possible answers to every human predicament, there are countless women and men within its fold whose souls, like Ted Haggard's, and mine at the age of twenty, are eviscerated with conflict between their innate sexual orientation and a religious system and attendant community that proclaims them the worst of sinners for their impulses. Some have repressed their desires, some have shoved them into unconsciousness, some live double lives as Haggard did, and some have graduated from "ex-gay" therapy programs that promise a biblical transformation into lifelong heterosexuality, only to discover that they cannot annihilate a God-given, yes I said God-given, part of themselves. Others have become alcoholics, addicts, psychotics, or suicide statistics.

It is for those individuals, as well as those who are authentically content with their orientation, that this book has been written. As a tormented fundamentalist Christian in the second decade of life, I might have found liberation, comfort, and affirmation had I had access to a book that blessed my sexual orientation as compatible with, rather than at war with, my unquenchable heart's desire for the sacred. Inexplicable suffering and a couple of suicide attempts might have been averted. And, I might have loved myself and others more attentively had I been able to love and honor the most forbidden aspect of all in my psyche.

But there are times and places when sexual orientation does not matter—or at least, when focus on LGBT "rights" must be considered in the context of the macrocosm of planet earth's current condition. At this moment, planet earth is headed for cataclysm unless its inhabitants very quickly address daunting issues of climate chaos, hydrocarbon energy depletion, and global economic catastrophe. (I hasten to add that I am not referring to a Rapture/Tribulation scenario.) Such issues are far more comprehensive than sexual orientation—or are they? Yes and no. Perhaps they are macrocosmic mirrors of how humans have conducted themselves in their span of years on the earth. War, greed, and patriarchy—that is, attitudes of power and control, have put earthlings on a fast track to annihilation, and persecution of diverse sexual orientations has been an integral aspect of humanity behaving badly.

In the light of these daunting realities, I do not believe that the LGBT community can afford to focus only on the dual issues of gay marriage and HIV/AIDS. I do not oppose concern with these issues, but I cannot help but be appalled that LGBT political leaders have become fixated on them with little awareness or discourse about what I continue to name as The Terminal Triangle of climate change, Peak Oil, and global economic meltdown. While I support the right of every lesbian and gay individual to conceive and birth children, I cringe at what in some instances is an obsession with doing so in the face of earth's carrying capacity, population overshoot, and the die-off that may occur as a result of the Terminal Triangle's devastations. In one of the chapters of my book "Tunnel Vision In The Rainbow Nation", I state that while the LGBT community desires a "place at the table" in the American political discourse, its overall lack of understanding about the nature of that political discourse and the realities of the Terminal Triangle guarantee that its misguided focus on gay marriage and HIV/AIDS assures that it will have a place at the table, but it's place will be "dinner" for the ruling elite.

I hold little hope for the avoidance of civilization's collapse, and in fact, it may be the only process capable of reconstituting humanity's priorities. Much anguish will ensue, and when humans are desperate, they tend to blame someone—anyone for their misery. I therefore expect the LGBT community to be one scapegoat, among many others. I fully anticipate that as the severity of collapse intensifies, we are likely to see pink triangles or their equivalent foisted on the LGBT community. The ruling elite's "need" for social control will intensify and with it, increased monitoring of all who do not conform to a lifestyle sanctioned by the empire's pseudo-Christian, fascist agenda.

But if the LGBT community is capable of transcending so-called LGBT politics and addressing issues that affect all humanity, we may decrease our vulnerability. What would happen if thousands of lesbian and gay individuals in the United States, identifying themselves as such, began organizing to prepare for collapse and reached out to the heterosexual community in doing so? What would happen if gay and lesbian families began organizing with heterosexual families on issues of debt slavery, healthcare, childcare, and myriad concerns that affect all families?

Likewise, if the heterosexual community is capable of increasingly repudiating fundamentalist Christianity's ghastly condemnation of all forms of diversity, civilization's collapse may facilitate the creation of small communities of individuals who are willing to move beyond mainstream society's media-manipulated, fundamentalist-fed culture wars and experience themselves on a cellular level as one human family.

In terms of human rights and civil liberties, sexual orientation matters enormously. In terms of the perils that threaten every life form on earth, it's no longer about "us" and "them." The lifeboats we create must honor the diversity of every passenger whose well being depends on the well being of every other.

Coming Out Of Fundamentalist Christianity: An Autobiography Affirming Sensuality, Social Justice, and The Sacred, is now available for order at Amazon. To order click HERE. The book will also be available very soon on this website.

Currently listening : Power Hor By Lesbian Release date: 27 March, 2007

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‘Shadow Goverment’ Of Private Contractors Explodes Under Bush

A new report by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform concludes that, under the Bush administration, the "shadow government of private companies working under federal contract has exploded in size. Between 2000 and 2005, procurement spending increased by over $175 billion dollars, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending."


But while private contractors — such as Halliburton and AshBritt — have been reaping huge profits, "billions of dollars of taxpayer money have been squandered." Some highlights from the report:

– Halliburton has been the "fastest growing contractor." Under the Bush administration, federal spending to Halliburton "increased over 600% between 2000 and 2005." The Government Accountability Office recently found that the government has wasted at least $2.7 billion to Halliburton on "overpriced contracts or undocumented costs." At the end of 2005, Cheney's stock options were valued at more than $8 million, a 3,281 percent gain from 2004.

– Growth in federal contracting exceeds inflation rate. In 2000, the value of federal contracts totaled $203 billion. By 2005, the value was $377.5 billion, an 86 percent increase. The new report notes that this "growth in contracting was over five times faster than the overall inflation rate and almost twice as fast as the growth in other discretionary federal spending over this period." A record level of "nearly 40 cents of every discretionary federal dollar now goes to private contractors."

– Noncompetitive contracts skyrocket. Sole-source and noncompetitive contracts grew by "an even faster rate than overall procurement spending, rising by 115% from $67.5 billion in 2000 to $145 billion in 2005." Many of these no-bid contracts during the Iraq war and Katrina reconstruction went to Bush administration cronies who wasted money and performed shoddy work.

In the report's review of 500 contracts, 118 contracts worth $745.5 billion "experienced significant overcharges, wasteful spending, or mismanagement over the last five years." A recent report by American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly has more details about the Bush administration's procurement process problem and what Congress can do to clean up the mess.

Currently listening : Earquake By William Bolcom Release date: 16 September, 1997

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James Howard Kunstler: PEAK SUBURBIA

June 27, 2007

I get lots of letters from people in various corners of the nation who are hysterically disturbed by the continuing spectacle of suburban development. But instead of joining in their hand-wringing, I reply by stating my serene conviction that we are at the end of the cycle -- and by that I mean the grand meta-cycle of the suburban project as a whole. It's over. Whatever you see out there now is pretty much what we're going to be stuck with. The remaining things under construction are the last twitchings of a dying organism.

It is not an accident that the housing bubble coincided with the phenomenon of Peak Oil. First of all, the housing bubble should more properly be called the suburban bubble, because most of the activity came in the form of "greenfield" housing subdivisions, and included all the additional crap-o-la accessories required by them -- strip malls, power centers, Outback steak houses, car washes, et cetera. The suburban expansion has been based entirely on cheap-and-abundant supplies of oil. Similarly, it was not an accident that the suburban project faltered briefly in the 1970s, when America's oil production entered its long decline, OPEC seized the moment, and oil prices shot up. Notice that the final suburban blowout occurred after 1990, when the North Sea and Prudhoe Bay oil strikes came into full production, disabling OPEC, and a world oil glut finally drove prices as low as ten dollars a barrel in 1999. That ushered in the climactic phase of suburbia, as represented by things like the standard 4000-square-foot Toll Brother's McMansion and the heyday of the super-gigantic SUV to go with it.

The American public has no idea how over all that is. The bottom is falling out under not only the housing market (as in houses up for sale) but on the whole apparatus for delivering future houses, and the car-oriented crap associated with it. The production home-builders, such as Toll Brothers, Hovanian, Pulte, et cetera are going down and they will not be coming back. There will be a great deal of wishing that they might come back, but they won't. Likewise, the commercial builders of all the various forms of suburban retail will be waiting to "turn the corner." But they will discover that the wall they have hit has no corner. It's just a wall. For anyone who wonders how much we do not need anymore retail space in America, have a look at this chart showing the comparative amount of retail square-footage allotted for citizens of each nation:

[See graphic on this page:
http://carolynbaker.org/archives/peak-suburbia-by-james-howard-kunstler
Those of you considering the purchase of more WalMart stock, take note...]

Some years back, when those watching the oil scene began to coalesce in their recognition that a worldwide production peak was imminent and hugely significant, the concept developed that this peak would take the form of a "bumpy plateau," meaning that supply-and-demand would teeter in an uncomfortable relationship for a period of time as markets and economies adjusted to the new reality by oscillating from higher prices to "demand destruction" to recession to recovery to higher prices, and so forth. This was expected to go on for quite a while before the world really headed into a slow permanent decline.

The latest statistical work by Dallas geologist Jeffrey Brown over at The Oil Drum.com, suggests that something else is happening, something that was not anticipated: an imminent oil export crisis. This Export Land Theory states that exporting nations will have far less oil available for export than was previously assumed under older models. (Story here.) The theory states that export rates will drop by a far greater percentage than net production decline rates in any given exporting country. For example, The UK's portion of the North Sea oil fields may be showing a nine percent annual decline for the past couple of years. But it's export capacity has declined 60 percent. Something similar is in store for Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela -- in short, the whole cast of characters in the export world. They are all producing less and they are all using more of their own oil, and have less to send elsewhere.

Brown's math suggests that world oil exports will drop by 50 percent within the next five years, certainly enough to trigger a systemic breakdown in market allocation, meaning serious supply shortages among the importing nations. That's us. We import two-thirds of all the oil we use.

The implication in all this is that the activities that have become "normal" for us during the post World War Two era will very shortly become untenable. An economy based on suburban expansion and incessant motoring is on the top of the list of supposedly "normal" activities that will not be able to continue. I would maintain that even if we had 20 years, no combination of bio-fuels and other alternatives would enable us to keep suburbia running. But this latest work indicates that we have much less time to adjust.

This new information is consistent with my view that we had better prepare to make other arrangements for living in this country, by which I mean specifically re-localizing, de-globalizing, with an emphasis on local agriculture wherever possible, the emergency restoration of passenger railroad service and related modes of public transit, the rebuilding of local commercial infrastructures, and a radical rethinking of how we inhabit the landscape under New Urbanist lines.

Perhaps the most imminent danger is that the financial markets, which have been driving our insane, hollowed-out economy, will soon recognize what's in store and implode, creating a crisis of capital that will leave us with no ability to make any emergency investments, such as would be required to rebuild the railroad system. The equity markets sure blinked last week when two hedge funds based on phony-baloney collateralized debt obligations tanked. The collateral underlying this load of hallucinated "wealth" is comprised of contracts made by the insolvent for suburban houses worth far less than the value stated on the contracts -- with every indication that the real value will keep dropping.

In any case, those who keep wringing their hands over the bulldozers leveling the plots of prairie, or cornfield, or desert -- those distressed folks can direct their anxiety elsewhere. Worry less whether one final strip mall will tilt up out in gloaming, and think harder about how you are going to feed yourself and your family in a couple of years when the stupendous motorized moloch of American life begins to sputter, and the Cheez Doodle shipments can no longer make it to your supermarket shelves, and all that is "normal" melts into air.

Currently listening : Lost in the Supermarket By Evelyn Forever Release date: 11 January, 2000

7:30 PM - 2 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Bush aides may have illegally lost e-mail, Dems say

Mon Jun 18, 2007
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karl Rove and dozens of other White House
staffers appear to have illegally routed official e-mails through a
Republican group that subsequently deleted them, a congressional
report said on Monday.

By using Republican National Committee e-mail accounts for official
business, senior White House aides may have broken a law requiring
them to preserve presidential records, the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform said in an interim report.

"This should be a matter of grave concern for anyone who values open
government and the preservation of an accurate historical record,"
said committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat.

The Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires White House officials
to save official correspondence. While the White House automatically
archives its e-mail the RNC typically deletes messages on its server
older than 30 days, the report said.

The White House and the RNC said Waxman's committee was jumping to
conclusions.

"We have seen a number of times right now where people have been
putting together investigations to see what sticks. They have had
very little success so far," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

White House officials have for years used RNC e-mail accounts to
comply with the Hatch Act, which forbids public servants from using
government property to conduct political business.

At least 88 White House staffers had RNC accounts and there are
signs that many of them used those accounts extensively for
nonpolitical matters, the committee said.

Rove, a top political adviser to President George W. Bush, sent more
than 100 e-mail messages and received more than 200 each day through
his RNC account in 2007, the report said.

More than half of the 140,000 Rove messages saved by the RNC was
correspondence with other government officials, the committee said.
Most of his correspondence from Bush's first term has not been
preserved, it said.

Rove thought his messages were being archived, his former assistant
Susan Ralston told the committee. His lawyer has said he never
intentionally deleted e-mail from any accounts.

The RNC said it is still searching for the missing e-mails.

"There is no basis for an assumption that any e-mail not already
found would be of an official nature," RNC spokeswoman Tracey
Schmitt said by e-mail.

The report also points a finger at Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales, currently facing pressure to resign over U.S. attorney
firings that Democrats say were political in nature.

As White House counsel, Gonzales may have known that Rove and others
were using RNC accounts but did nothing to stop it, the report says.

A Justice Department official referred questions to the White House.

The committee said it will investigate Gonzales' role further and
search federal agencies for copies of the missing e-mails. It also
said it plans to subpoena Bush's 2004 re-election campaign for
additional e-mails because the campaign has not cooperated.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1839309320070618?feedType=RSS&rpc=22

Currently listening : We're the Banana Splits / Here Come the Beagles By The Banana Splits / The Beagles

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Hedge Fund's Gas Speculation Blamed for Increased Consumer Prices

Amaranth gas trades 'hit US consumers'
By Jeremy Grant in Washington

Published: June 25 2007 03:20 | Last updated: June 25 2007 03:20

Hedge fund Amaranth and its star trader Brian Hunter built up such large positions in the US natural gas derivatives markets last year that they single-handedly sparked abnormally high gas prices for consumers across the US, a congressional report claims on Monday.

The report is the first to lift the lid on months of frenetic trading that eventually cost Amaranth over $6bn in losses and sparked renewed fears over a hedge funds meltdown.

The findings, by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will fuel congressional concern that US energy market regulation has failed to keep up with a flood of hedge fund money into commodity markets.

Concern is focused on the over-the-counter markets, where deals are negotiated privately between counterparties. Industry experts say OTC accounts for 75 of US energy trading.

Yet they fall largely outside the scope of the US futures regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the committee, said current commodity laws were "riddled with exemptions, exclusions and limitations that make it virtually impossible for regulators to police US energy markets."

"I don't care whether they [Amaranth] lost all their money; they are gamblers. We do care when they take others over the cliff with them," he said.

He proposed that the CFTC be given extra resources, partly by empowering it to charge "user fees" on the exchanges it regulates – as the Securities and Exchange Commission does with stock and options exchanges.

Gregory Mocek, head of CFTC enforcement, warned in a Financial Times interview in April that the commodity markets were growing so fast that the regulator did not have the funding to keep up with the scale of policing needed.

The report is the result of nine months of interviews with Amaranth traders, including Mr Hunter, a Canadian who made a fortune in 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit after he bet in the future markets that gas prices would rise.

It claims to show how Amaranth built up vast positions in natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and later on the Intercontinental Exchange, an OTC electronic platform.

The report accuses Amaranth of "excessive speculation" that had a "direct effect on US natural gas prices and increased volatility in gas markets.

It did so by widening the spread between winter and summer month futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange beyond a level normally expected due to "normal market interaction of many buyers and sellers".

Utilities typically commit to buying gas for delivery to customers many months in advance to be sure of supply. The prices they pay are benchmarked off futures prices on Nymex – prices the report claims were the result of "excessive speculation".

It said: "Amaranth's purchases of contracts to deliver natural gas in the winter months, in conjunction with [its] sales of natural gas contracts for delivery in the summer months, drove winter prices far above summer prices. These differences between winter and summer prices, called 'price spreads', were far higher in 2006 than in previous years – until the collapse of Amaranth, when the price spreads returned to more normal levels."

In testimony that Amaranth will make at a hearing of the subcommittee on Monday, the hedge fund said the report's conclusion that its activity has "a causal impact in market prices runs contrary to the views of many economists and regulators that speculative trading cannot control prices".

"The [report's] analysis simply fails to support its assertion that Amaranth dominated the natural gas derivatives market or caused either price distortions or volatility and, in fact, we did not," Amaranth will tell senators.

However in a key finding, the senate report said that Amaranth, after receiving repeated warnings not to violate pre-set "position limits" on Nymex, shifted trading to natural gas swaps on ICE to continue its strategy of accumulating record positions without regulatory scrutiny.

Electronic trading platforms like ICE were exempted from full CFTC oversight under a law passed in 2000, after lobbying by Enron and the investment banks that were the largest users of OTC energy markets.

Since then, Mr Levin and Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, have repeatedly tried to passed laws that would close what they call the "Enron loophole" by extending the CFTC's jurisdiction to OTC markets.

Lobbying by the banks and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the trade association for OTC derivatives, blocked such efforts.

ISDA dismissed the report's findings, saying: "Tired allegations that activity in the privately negotiated derivatives industry somehow adversely affects consumers have been thoroughly rejected by the federal agencies charged with their policing."

The report said traders treat Nymex futures contracts as equivalent to ICE swaps "for the purposes of risk management and profit-taking". Yet "one is regulated and one is not".

ICE responded by pointing out that it has been providing the CFTC with "daily [trader] position information" to the watchdog, at the CFTC's request, since late last year.

However insiders at the regulator say the quality of what ICE provides does not always match what it receives routinely from Nymex.

On Friday, the CFTC proposed amendments to an existing rule that requires anyone holding or controlling a futures position to keep records and hand them over on request to the regulator.

It was designed to "enhance the Commission's ability to deter and prevent price manipulation or any other disruptions to the integrity of the regulated futures markets, to ensure the avoidance of systemic risk, and to clarify the meaning of the regulation", the CFTC said.

Mr Levin may stand a better chance in his effort to tighten OTC market regulation this time with his party's control of Congress. A report by his committee one year ago into the role of market speculation by hedge funds in rising oil and petrol prices failed to garner attention in the then Republican-controlled congress.

Republicans on Mr Levin's committee disagreed with some of the report's conclusions on Amaranth's role in affecting natural gas prices.

But in a boost to Mr Levin, they agreed that report's findings raised "valid concerns that demonstrate the need for greater transparency in our energy markets".

Norm Coleman, the senior committee Republican, said: "The ongoing shift of energy trading to unregulated, over-the-counter electronic exchanges undermines the CFTC's ability to monitor and prevent excessive speculation and price manipulation."

One dilemma faced by Democrats as they seek legislation to close the Enron loophole is that the effort is focused on dealing with ICE and other so-called "exempt commercial markets" – meaning that they are exempt from full CFTC jurisdiction – at a time when a vast amount of OTC trading also takes place between counterparties on the telephone.

Mr Coleman said "we must ensure that any proposed cure is not worse than the disease".

"If we extend CFTC oversight and regulation to electronic, over-the-counter exchanges we must avoid unintended consequences – namely, creating incentives for traders to shift their business to the far less transparent and unregulated bilateral, voice-brokered markets."

An added problem for Mr Levin is that the Chicago futures exchanges are likely to lobby aggressively against the imposition of user fees by the CFTC.

Industry experts say the agricultural committees of congress that oversee the exchanges are unlikely to sanction user fees given the exchanges' deep-pocketed connections to their members.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/73243382-2280-11dc-ac53-000b5df10621.html

Currently listening : All Gas. No Brake. By Stellar Kart Release date: 15 February, 2005

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Strategic Forecasting: Two Progressive Forums, Two Purposes

By Davis Cherry and Kathleen Morson

Democratic presidential candidates, progressive political action committees, labor coalitions and filmmakers gathered with more than 3,000 activists in Washington this week for the fifth annual Take Back America (TBA) Conference. Next week, activists will attend the first U.S. Social Forum (USSF), an offshoot of the World Social Forum, in Atlanta, Ga. Although the events might appear redundant, or even competitive, they reach different niches in the larger progressive movement -- and their outcomes will determine the degree of cohesion with which the Democratic Party's liberal wing enters the 2008 election season.

The two events are not jointly organized, have no shared apparent strategy and -- except for several labor groups -- are attended by few of the same participants. While the larger progressive movement has quite successfully incorporated labor groups (those who support TBA), it has long seen the need to embrace a broader range of potential supporters, such as the fringe and minority groups represented by the USSF. If the opportunity is seized, events such as the USSF and TBA conferences could see more overlap in the future. The extent to which the two constituencies supporting each conference begin to work together will determine whether the emerging progressive movement becomes a driving, unifying force behind the Democratic Party.

The Progressives

Although the definition of every political ideology is open to debate, progressivism, which dates back to the 1900s as a response to industrialization, generally promotes government involvement in society by advancing certain social justice issues, protecting workers' rights and regulating perceived excesses of business. Progressives typically are associated with political liberals, though activists working under the current progressive banner often are more concerned with forming coalitions and a sense of community among populist, environmental and social justice groups, rather than simply striving for individual liberties and rights.

The current progressive movement in many ways is an intentional mimicking of the successful conservative model of political organizing. Progressives point to the increased influence of conservative think tanks since the 1970s and the patient, long-term focus of conservative activists at the grassroots level as keys to the success of the modern conservative movement. The progressive equivalent can be traced back to the formation in 1996 of Campaign for America's Future, the founding of MoveOn.org in 1998 and Howard Dean's 2004 Internet-based "meet-ups" and his courtship of emerging grassroots networks during his presidential campaign.

The progressives attending the TBA conference take credit for delivering a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2006 and are characterizing the public distrust of American political leaders, including the Bush administration, as a signal that the country's political pendulum is on the verge of swinging back from a conservative focus to a progressive one. As a result, progressive leaders are asking the question, "Now that we have more power, how do we sustain the momentum?"

The current progressive movement, however, has been constrained by the lack of unity among potential ideological supporters, a problem that has persisted since the 1960s. The conclusion that a unified liberal wing is the best path forward for progressives is easy to see, though making it happen is far more difficult.

The ultimate challenge for progressives will be to unite the labor movement with groups espousing more leftist social policies. TBA backers largely comprise labor groups -- including the United Steelworkers, the Machinists Union and the Food and Commercial Workers Union -- and the annual conferences therefore have focused primarily on the labor constituency because the organizers believe it is the largest segment of society most likely to back progressive economic policies. The goal for progressive leaders, then, is to win labor over to more liberal or outside-the-box social issues. (Historically, tensions exist between these two groups largely because the labor groups believe some socially leftist policies will hurt their jobs.) The USSF, then, is important because it provides a venue for groups on the social left and a small representation of labor groups to come together. The degree to which the two camps work together at the forum -- and, most important, over the long term -- is critical to the success of the progressive strategy.

A Renewed Contract

The political organization Campaign for America's Future -- a progressive counterweight in the Democratic Party to the more centrist Democratic Leadership Council -- organizes the annual TBA conference to bolster the agendas of progressive groups nationwide and advance populist policies within the Democratic Party. An increasing number of high-profile Democratic leaders attend the event, and all of the leading Democratic presidential candidates spoke this year. Anger over the Iraq war and the slow pace of post-Katrina reconstruction, concern about climate change and worker frustration with outsourcing and structural changes in the global economy are primary issues for the Democratic Party's left wing, a group that party leaders must court, especially during the primary season.

The slogan "Take Back America," however, raises the obvious questions: Take back from what? And, after the progressive activists have "taken back" America, what do they want to emerge?

First, many political activists attending TBA want to "take back" and reverse the economic policies President Ronald Reagan instituted in the early '80s. The policies, the progressives say, weakened the middle class, advanced the interests of corporations over workers and society and have led to increasing economic inequality in the United States. The policies in question include deregulation, cuts in spending on social programs, tax cuts and federal promotion of free trade agreements. Progressives say the U.S. government represents only a small portion of Americans -- the wealthy -- and that its policies favor business interests rather than public interest.

TBA is largely a call for a return to the policies of periods such as the 1960s, which promoted spending on social services, trade protectionism and worker rights -- policies progressives claim offered workers an acceptable safety net. Although conference sessions this year addressed topics such as climate change, energy security, repealing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, social justice and media bias, the perceived role of corporations in determining national policy drove the agenda.

Specifically, TBA activists claim that corporations are neglecting their "social contract" -- the notion that corporations owe workers livable wages, benefits such as health coverage and more time off. This neglect, they say, leads to greater worker insecurity, stress on families and lower savings, all while benefiting corporations. They also want a remedy to what they consider the growing disconnect between increasing worker productivity and the relative slow growth or stagnation of worker wages.

Notably, populist junior Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said at the TBA conference that the election of a Democratic majority in Congress represents a fundamental shift in national priorities. He compared current political and societal shifts to historic inflection points in the U.S. economic cycle, such as the rise of progressivism in the early 1900s that led to bans on most forms of child labor, income redistribution policies and consumer protection laws; the New Deal, which established social security and other national spending programs; and President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" programs, which included Medicare, Medicaid and numerous civil rights policies. Brown and other speakers claim that such "progressive" reversals occur throughout history after periods of significant corporate control and declines in workers' standard of living.

Competing Visions?

The TBA conference is designed to energize the moderate progressive wing of the Democratic Party and help political candidates gain progressive supporters. Progressives designed TBA to influence the work of mainstream political parties, not to encourage a fundamental shift away from the American capitalistic economic framework.

The U.S. Social Forum has a different agenda.

A plethora of more socially radical organizations that fill a greater number of activist niches will attend the upcoming USSF. Many of these groups promote direct action campaigns and the creation of a new socioeconomic order. Indigenous, third-world, immigrant, minority and gay rights issues will top the agenda at this conference, as will criticism of the U.S. military-industrial complex, the Iraq war, the U.S. prison system and the handling of post-Katrina Gulf Coast reconstruction.

Although the views of the participating organizations cannot be grouped into a single category, compared to the TBA conference, USSF attendees have a greater acceptance of anti-capitalist/American imperialist rhetoric, 9/11 conspiracy theories, ending the two-party system and fundamentally altering the American socioeconomic way of life beyond strengthening labor negotiating power. USSF will be open to more ideas and modes of thought, though this openness also renders USSF less viable as a force of immediate political change. Still, the USSF can help organize the often-overlooked constituencies of the progressive movement.

As is the nature of the World Social Forum -- an annual global meeting designed to give voice to the many interests activists claim are not represented during meetings such as the World Economic Forum -- conference participants will likely produce no single post-conference statement that sums up their beliefs and goals or that seeks to advance a particular agenda. But this is by design, as organizers will want to portray the event as inclusive of the all the diverse viewpoints.

The USSF -- the first regional World Social Forum held in the United States -- has been in the works for four years, and its timing -- a year ahead of the presidential election -- is not an accident. Organizers are seeking to build momentum against the Republican Party ahead of the election to counter what they see as government dominance by the conservative political right and the general lack of support for minority and lower-income people in the United States. Atlanta was chosen to host the forum to help spur the creation of a new social movement in the South to counter the South's historical "roots of oppression, injustice, exploitation and social control."

Moving Forward

Progressive groups that are strongly connected to national politics and labor issues, such as Campaign for America's Future, aim to draw upon the growth of more independent and fragmented groups, such as those taking part in USSF, to increase the progressive movement's membership and idea base -- and ultimately to help sustain the movement. Although they did it to a greater extent, this is the way evangelicals helped to bolster the modern conservative political movement.

Speaking at the TBA conference, civil rights leader Van Jones, co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, outlined a possible scenario for cooperation among the various groups. He said the environmental justice movement, which emerged 20 years ago to promote equal protection from "bad" things such as pollution and drugs, could be reconfigured into a movement built around the idea that all races and classes can benefit from the emerging green economy in terms of job creation, new technologies and better community planning. Under Jones' scenario, labor/environmental groups such as the Apollo Alliance would lead such a movement along with local community activist groups. According to Jones, progressive membership organizations such as MoveOn.org must help support this growing environmental justice movement because this constituency is crucial to the overall progressive movement's success.

Beyond the challenge of building an environmental justice component, progressives also want to harness the energy of anti-war activists whose ideological premise proved so important during the 2006 congressional elections -- but whose single-issue focus cools them to any larger progressive alliance. The problem is that the larger movement has never effectively communicated how opposition to the war falls in line with its broader economic and social goals. Its job then, is to convince the anti-war faction -- led by career activists but typified by new activists such as Cindy Sheehan, who has given up her protests partly due to frustration over the lack of success on the issue -- of the role they can play.

Bringing the anti-war faction and the environmental justice movement into the larger labor-dominated coalition is vital if the progressive wing is to be both effective and long-lasting. The movement likely will fail to shore up these constituencies in time for the 2008 elections, but it could succeed in building the blocks for future political contests.
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Currently listening : Middle Class Revolt By The Fall Release date: 25 April, 2006

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Failing Upwards: The Rise of Michael Chertoff

By MIKE WHITNEY

Michael Chertoff's record at the Justice Dept. has followed the same downward arc as a belly-flop. He's managed to botch every major case he's handled and elicit the well-deserved scorn of civil liberties groups. Only in the gravity-defying world of G.W. Bush, where reality is routinely run through a public relations shredder, would a bungler like Chertoff reach the top-spot at Homeland Security. Even so, his appointment should come as no surprise to the wary American public. It's just one more horse-nugget added to an already ample mound of political manure.

Chertoff is credited with authoring the Patriot Act, the 300-plus page blueprint for the modern National Security State; patterned to great extent on the successes of the KGB in the Soviet system. He's admired among his Bush cadres for making sure that government surveillance operates at maximum efficiency. Under his stewardship at the Dept of Justice, the 4th amendment has withered like summer grass. The long-held belief that citizens, have a right to a "reasonable expectation of privacy" has buckled under the demands of "Big Brother" and the new "intrusive" security paradigm.

Chertoff is a member in good standing in the Federalist Society; a cabal of radical lawyers devoted to the systematic dismantling of the Bill of Rights. Already, they've provided much of the legal rationale for the unlawful detention of aliens, the enhanced powers of the Executive, the indefinite incarceration of POW's and the cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners. They've also made strides in crushing what few regulations still exist to protect both consumers and environment.

Chertoff has been an effective conduit for the Federalist ideology. Following 9-11, he masterminded the round-up of 1100 Muslim suspects; dumping them in prison without bothering to file charges. None of the suspects were provided with attorneys or allowed to challenge the terms of their detention. Instead they were held in solitary confinement, abused, and either deported or released after secret tribunals. Chertoff effectively rescinded the Bill of Rights to pursue his blinkered witch-hunt. His actions made no one any safer, nor were they intended to. They were designed to show how easily legal protections are eviscerated during a national emergency. Don't think Chertoff and co. haven't monitored the affects of hysteria on public sensibilities. For the Bush team, demagoguery is the primary tenet of good governance.

Months after the illegal detentions, the Justice's Dept's Inspector General harshly criticized the draconian and unproductive steps that Chertoff authorized. The General dismissed the arrests as "indiscriminate and haphazard"; a clear violation of basic human rights and civil liberties. His reprimand was shrugged off by the impervious Chertoff, who later admitted to Congress that he would have done the same thing all over again.

In Chertoff's world, due process takes a backseat to the arbitrary assertion of state power. Even the hint of terrorism and the rule of law is breezily tossed overboard.

Did we mention that not one terror suspect was ever charged or convicted in this blundering, ham-fisted dragnet? Instead, Chertoff's recklessness galvanized the Muslim community against us and reinforced feelings that the war on terror is underscored by racist and sectarian hatred.

So far, both the media and Senate Democrats are enthralled with Bush's latest selection. A simple Google search rings-up about 200 stories with the same by-line: "Bush Picks Federal Judge for Homeland Security" or "Bush makes Safe Pick"; all of them equally flattering except for a few Muslim or civil liberties sites.

President Bush has also expressed his enthusiasm for his newly-minted Homeland Chief:
"Mike has shown a deep commitment to the cause of justice and an unwavering determination to protect the American people," Bush beamed. "He's also been a key leader in the war on terror."

Indeed, he has. Chertoff led the charge on a number of high-profile cases.

In the widely publicized Detroit "Terror-Cell" case Chertoff's team botched the case through "prosecutorial misconduct"; the INTENTIONAL WITHHOLDING OF INFORMATION THAT WOULD HAVE ACQUITTED THE ACCUSED.

Chertoff was attempting to put an innocent man behind bars just to chalk-up a victory in the war on terror. Fortunately, a DOJ insider blew the whistle and the case was dismissed, but not before it was plain that Chertoff was willing to break the rules to achieve his ends.

Does this sound like someone you,d want to put in charge of the nation's largest public welfare institution?

Another case fumbled by Chertoff was that of a Muslim college student in Idaho who was charged with running an "internet network that fostered Islamic extremists and helped recruit potential terrorists".

Whoa! Sounds like serious stuff?

As it turns out, the charges were entirely bogus and the student was AQUITTED BY THE UNANIMOUS DECISION OF A JURY after an exhaustive review of the evidence. Like all of the DOJ's cases, the story was catapulted to the front page when it broke, (irreparably scarring the student's reputation) and hastily banished to the back pages when the case fizzled. The media operates by the same standard as Chertoff; the "presumption of innocence" is never a serious concern.

There was an intriguing twist to this story, too. Three months after the student was acquitted, the DOJ put Immigration on the case and shipped the young man out of the country. In other words, the DOJ's targets are never safe even if they've been vindicated by a jury. It's a sobering lesson in the flagrant abuse of power.

Chertoff also mishandled the Zacarias Moussaoui case. Moussaoui was allegedly the "20th hijacker" whose case was considered by many to be a "slam dunk". This explains why Chertoff decided to allow it to go through the criminal justice system, to demonstrate the evenhandedness of the American judicial system. Unfortunately, the state made a hash of the proceedings and has been unable to convict a man who, (by his own admission) belonged to terror organizations in France, and who was clearly in the country to mount an attack against the US. Instead of compiling the evidence he needed for a conviction, Chertoff used the case to batter the 6th amendment. (The government refuses to allow captured Al Qaida members to testify in Moussaoui's defense, even though they can provide evidence that will clear him of all charges) The case has deteriorated into a 3 year long travesty; pitting a self-proclaimed terrorist against the ineffectual prosecution of the Justice Dept.

Chertoff's record of failure at Justice is second only to that of Ashcroft. His 4 year tenure hasn't produced even one identifiable success. (Check out his "obstruction of justice" in the John Walker Lindh case on Democracy Now) Instead, his personal ineptitude and his palpable contempt for the law have only showered more disgrace on the institution of American justice. That probably explains why he's being moved up the bureaucratic dog-pile to the top rung of Homeland Security. In Bush-world "failing upwards" is more commonplace than cowboy boots at a Crawford tent-show.

Chertoff's appointment puts the finishing touches on the 2005 Bush Politburo. He'll take his place among the demagogues, torturers and death-squad aficionados that fill out the ranks of the current administration. His slavish devotion to duty will guarantee his tenure at the right hand of the throne; nuzzled up to the ear of the beloved commander-in-chief. After all, Chertoff served his time in the trenches; leading the Republican Congress in their legal jihad against Bill Clinton. ( note: The Whitewater investigation that consumed $40 million of taxpayers money and miles of column space in the "free press" to prove absolutely nothing) And, he's made impressive contributions to the increasing volumes of repressive legislation emerging almost weekly from the Congress. In other words, he's earned his stripes and established himself as a valuable cog in the mighty wheel of state.

We can expect that Chertoff's assault on the Bill of Rights will only intensify in his new role at Homeland Security. Aside from trying to stomp out union activity, and privatize whatever parts of the agency can be farmed out to Bush's corporate buddies, Chertoff will be in charge of the "color-coded" terror-alert system; a program that is skillfully manipulated for purely political purposes. If the administration's charade starts to unravel, Bush will need a good man like Chertoff in place to go "Code Red" and announce the transition to martial law.

Until then, Chertoff will have to satisfy himself with the task of savaging the institutions that make democracy possible. He's already established his bone fides as an enemy of personal freedom and an opponent of an independent judiciary. He'll probably try to expand on those themes; winning greater applause from the feckless Congress.

The ACLU summarized Chertoff's checkered commitment to the rule of law when they issued a statement last week saying, "We are troubled that his public record suggests he sees the Bill of Rights as an obstacle to national security, rather than a guidebook for how to do security properly."

Regrettably, the ACLU is wrong in their assumption that Chertoff sees the Bill of Rights as an obstacle. Rather, he sees it as a minor inconvenience; like a wall that needs to be removed block by block.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com

Currently listening : Fantastic Planet By Failure Release date: 13 August, 1996

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