Wal-Mart gets slammed in a new report by normally-political group, Human Rights Watch. They don’t usually tackle American companies. There’s much to read here about our Arkansas-bred retail giant, but here’s the quote that caught my eye..
Human Rights Watch Slams Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart’s labor law violations, as measured by findings of illegal conduct between 2000 and 2005, exceed those of Albertson’s, Costco, Home Depot, Kroger, Kmart, Sears, and Target combined by 15 to 4. One part of the answer to solving the Wal-Mart problem in American labor, then, is to [...]
Combined? COMBINED?! Unbelievable.
Tags: Human Rights Watch, Wal-Mart, Labor Law
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It seems that way, at times. We’ve forgotten about the horror of Hurricane Katrina. And the disastrous manner in which government, at all levels, responded. New Orleans fell from the front pages long ago. Out of sight, out of mind. Until something like this article comes along, jarring all of us back into reality.
Since the Storm: No End to Katrina in New Orleans
I’ve been back from New Orleans for a few days now and have gotten a chance to sort through my thoughts, notes, and research. I went down with the intention of focusing on the rebuilding process and it seems to make sense for me to chop up what I have into three posts. The first up is this post, on the scope and impact of Hurricane Katrina in post-storm New Orleans. The second will look at [...]
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina
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And somebody just figured out why THAT might be a problem in the not-too-distant future.
Pentagon and the End of Oil
It looks like someone in the Pentagon started reading about peak oil, got alarmed, and decided to take the typical course of action: commission a report. According to an article in the Boston Globe, the report comes to the unsurprising [...]
Tags: Pentagon, Oil, Peak Oil
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Editor & Publisher does a great job today of reminding us how easily most members of the media were caught up in the "Mission Accomplished" PR campaign four years ago; caught up because of the information they were being given.
Back in the Days of ‘Mission Accomplished’: How One Paper Covered Bush Declaration Four Years Ago
Today marks the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s jet landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and his speech declaring major fighting in Iraq over, all in front of a giant “Mission Accomplished” banner. At the time, it was heralded by much of the mainstream media as a fitting moment of triumph. "He won the war," boomed MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. "He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." Since then, it has become [...]
Here’s some TV coverage, just for good measure..
Mission Not so Accomplished
Oh, by the way, the President never actually said "Mission Accomplished". And the banner? Well, you’ve gotta see Dana Perino to believe this one…
Another bad Mission Accomplished explanation.
War Room’s Tim Grieve notes that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino emphasized today that President Bush never used the words “Mission Accomplished” — but then argued “we did prevail.” PERINO: Let me just remind everybody, in case you need it, that speech there, I encourage people to read it. The president never said ‘mission accomplished.’ I [...]
Tags: Mission Accomplished, Chris Matthews, Iraq War
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Fascinating "insider" story floating around the blogosphere today concerning a recent meeting at the White House. Caveat: The reports may (or may not) be 100% accurate. Take a look and see what you think. I’m withholding opinion until somebody gets someone who was THERE to talk.
‘This is called a ‘bunker mentality’’
ThinkProgress highlights this disturbing item from yesterday’s Nelson Report: [S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no [...]
Over at FireDogLake, Christy Hardin Smith notes that report in a post earlier today, but also expands on a number of other stories circulating around "Mission Accomplished" Day, including some very tough comments from William F. Buckley..
Mission Accomplished
What sort of abysmal failure of a presidency do you have as an elected Republican when William F. Buckley, Jr., writing in the National Review, calls your tenure "grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue?" And then says this: But beyond affirming executive supremacy in matters of war, what is George Bush going [...]
Tags: President Bush, White House, Bunker Mentality
Tags: William F. Buckley, National Review
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Good old Ray McGovern You remember him, don’t you? Retired CIA office. The guy who took on Donald Rumsfeld in a Q&A session in Atlanta, debating Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Crooks and Liars has links to his latest outburst AND the original one!
Ray McGovern: Cheney Had Niger Documents “Farmed Out”
Monday night on "Tucker," retired CIA officer and truthout.org contributor Ray McGovern talks about George Tenet and the case that was made for WMD and Iraq. When Tucker turns the topic to the forged Niger documents, McGovern takes the discussion in a whole new direction. I don’t think Tucker was ready for [...]
Tags: tucker Carlson, Ray McGovern, George Tenet, Iraq War, WMD, Niger
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Seems most of the blog chatter today has been focused on the four-year anniversary of the President’s now-infamous "Victory Accomplished" speech. Booman Tribune contained some thoughts today…
Let’s Fix This Mess Already
The Congress is going to deliver the Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill to the White House today. It sounds like Bush is going to stare at it until Wednesday and then veto it. Bush doesn’t want to veto the bill today, on the 4th anniversary of Mission Accomplished. Whatever. Can we get serious in the country? "The heavily fortified Green Zone, where the American and British Embassies are, suffered its second serious mortar attack in two weeks on Monday night when it was hit by a volley of mortar shells [....]
Greg Sargent looks over a new Gallup poll and discovers,,
Poll: Solid Majority Favors Sticking To Withdrawal Timetable No Matter What Happens In Iraq
Tags: Iraq War, Supplemental Funding Bill, Mission Accomplished
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This melamine-contamination thing is beginning to really bug me. Most of my frustration is directed at our own Food and Drug Administration, where things just don’t seem to be working.
Time to go vegetarian
Every now and then I think that I really should make the effort to become a vegetarian. After all, isn’t that what good progressives are supposed to do? The problem is that I like meat, I do far better in terms of keeping the noshies down if I have some animal protein with meals, and I hate tofu. Even my sister, who was a vegetarian for years, now eats chicken and fish. I had already reluctantly resigned myself to the fact that pork was out of my life for the time being because pigs that had been fed melamine-tainted feed had entered the food supply, but now it seems chicken has been similarly tainted: "The U.S. government said on Monday 38 poultry farms in Indiana [...]
And, we’re up to 4,000 dead dogs and cats…
Melamine Contamination: The Story Gets Worse
And, get a load of THIS. The FDA widened the alert. Quietly. Very quietly..
FDA Widens Import Alert (To Put It Mildly), Concedes That Animal Fatalities Number In The Thousands
Tags: Melamine, Contaminated Chickens, Vegetarian
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I passed on this story yesterday, since there seemed to be some confusion about whether or not the "copy and paste" allegation amounted to something illegal or simply stupid. Today, the story’s being fleshed-out with some additional information that warrants your time.
Pump bid for New Orleans may have been rigged.
When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, “it copied the specifications — typos and all — from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract.” That manufacturer: MWI. “MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President George W. Bush’s brother, to market its pumps [...]
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, MWI
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Wasn’t May Day a bigger deal when we were kids? Just askin’. What happened to it? Supplanted, I guess, by "Mission Accomplished". Time to find a flagpole and put my dancin’ shoes on.
Until then, read on…
Today’s Must Read
I think we’ve identified a rule of Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department: the more senior you are in the leadership, the less of a clue you have of what’s going on there. We were all treated to Gonzales’ historical display of [...]
Tags: Gonzales, Department of Justice
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Wal-Mart gets slammed in a new report by normally-political group, Human Rights Watch. They don’t usually tackle American companies. There’s much to read here about our Arkansas-bred retail giant, but here’s the quote that caught my eye..
Human Rights Watch Slams Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart’s labor law violations, as measured by findings of illegal conduct between 2000 and 2005, exceed those of Albertson’s, Costco, Home Depot, Kroger, Kmart, Sears, and Target combined by 15 to 4. One part of the answer to solving the Wal-Mart problem in American labor, then, is to [...]
Combined? COMBINED?! Unbelievable.
Tags: Human Rights Watch, Wal-Mart, Labor Law
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Categories: Uncategorized
It seems that way, at times. We’ve forgotten about the horror of Hurricane Katrina. And the disastrous manner in which government, at all levels, responded. New Orleans fell from the front pages long ago. Out of sight, out of mind. Until something like this article comes along, jarring all of us back into reality.
Since the Storm: No End to Katrina in New Orleans
I’ve been back from New Orleans for a few days now and have gotten a chance to sort through my thoughts, notes, and research. I went down with the intention of focusing on the rebuilding process and it seems to make sense for me to chop up what I have into three posts. The first up is this post, on the scope and impact of Hurricane Katrina in post-storm New Orleans. The second will look at [...]
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina
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Categories: Uncategorized
And somebody just figured out why THAT might be a problem in the not-too-distant future.
Pentagon and the End of Oil
It looks like someone in the Pentagon started reading about peak oil, got alarmed, and decided to take the typical course of action: commission a report. According to an article in the Boston Globe, the report comes to the unsurprising [...]
Tags: Pentagon, Oil, Peak Oil
Powered by Qumana
Categories: Uncategorized
Editor & Publisher does a great job today of reminding us how easily most members of the media were caught up in the "Mission Accomplished" PR campaign four years ago; caught up because of the information they were being given.
Back in the Days of ‘Mission Accomplished’: How One Paper Covered Bush Declaration Four Years Ago
Today marks the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s jet landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and his speech declaring major fighting in Iraq over, all in front of a giant “Mission Accomplished” banner. At the time, it was heralded by much of the mainstream media as a fitting moment of triumph. "He won the war," boomed MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. "He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." Since then, it has become [...]
Here’s some TV coverage, just for good measure..
Mission Not so Accomplished
Oh, by the way, the President never actually said "Mission Accomplished". And the banner? Well, you’ve gotta see Dana Perino to believe this one…
Another bad Mission Accomplished explanation.
War Room’s Tim Grieve notes that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino emphasized today that President Bush never used the words “Mission Accomplished” — but then argued “we did prevail.” PERINO: Let me just remind everybody, in case you need it, that speech there, I encourage people to read it. The president never said ‘mission accomplished.’ I [...]
Tags: Mission Accomplished, Chris Matthews, Iraq War
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Fascinating "insider" story floating around the blogosphere today concerning a recent meeting at the White House. Caveat: The reports may (or may not) be 100% accurate. Take a look and see what you think. I’m withholding opinion until somebody gets someone who was THERE to talk.
‘This is called a ‘bunker mentality’’
ThinkProgress highlights this disturbing item from yesterday’s Nelson Report: [S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no [...]
Over at FireDogLake, Christy Hardin Smith notes that report in a post earlier today, but also expands on a number of other stories circulating around "Mission Accomplished" Day, including some very tough comments from William F. Buckley..
Mission Accomplished
What sort of abysmal failure of a presidency do you have as an elected Republican when William F. Buckley, Jr., writing in the National Review, calls your tenure "grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue?" And then says this: But beyond affirming executive supremacy in matters of war, what is George Bush going [...]
Tags: President Bush, White House, Bunker Mentality
Tags: William F. Buckley, National Review
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Good old Ray McGovern You remember him, don’t you? Retired CIA office. The guy who took on Donald Rumsfeld in a Q&A session in Atlanta, debating Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Crooks and Liars has links to his latest outburst AND the original one!
Ray McGovern: Cheney Had Niger Documents “Farmed Out”
Monday night on "Tucker," retired CIA officer and truthout.org contributor Ray McGovern talks about George Tenet and the case that was made for WMD and Iraq. When Tucker turns the topic to the forged Niger documents, McGovern takes the discussion in a whole new direction. I don’t think Tucker was ready for [...]
Tags: tucker Carlson, Ray McGovern, George Tenet, Iraq War, WMD, Niger
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Seems most of the blog chatter today has been focused on the four-year anniversary of the President’s now-infamous "Victory Accomplished" speech. Booman Tribune contained some thoughts today…
Let’s Fix This Mess Already
The Congress is going to deliver the Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill to the White House today. It sounds like Bush is going to stare at it until Wednesday and then veto it. Bush doesn’t want to veto the bill today, on the 4th anniversary of Mission Accomplished. Whatever. Can we get serious in the country? "The heavily fortified Green Zone, where the American and British Embassies are, suffered its second serious mortar attack in two weeks on Monday night when it was hit by a volley of mortar shells [....]
Greg Sargent looks over a new Gallup poll and discovers,,
Poll: Solid Majority Favors Sticking To Withdrawal Timetable No Matter What Happens In Iraq
Tags: Iraq War, Supplemental Funding Bill, Mission Accomplished
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Categories: Uncategorized
This melamine-contamination thing is beginning to really bug me. Most of my frustration is directed at our own Food and Drug Administration, where things just don’t seem to be working.
Time to go vegetarian
Every now and then I think that I really should make the effort to become a vegetarian. After all, isn’t that what good progressives are supposed to do? The problem is that I like meat, I do far better in terms of keeping the noshies down if I have some animal protein with meals, and I hate tofu. Even my sister, who was a vegetarian for years, now eats chicken and fish. I had already reluctantly resigned myself to the fact that pork was out of my life for the time being because pigs that had been fed melamine-tainted feed had entered the food supply, but now it seems chicken has been similarly tainted: "The U.S. government said on Monday 38 poultry farms in Indiana [...]
And, we’re up to 4,000 dead dogs and cats…
Melamine Contamination: The Story Gets Worse
And, get a load of THIS. The FDA widened the alert. Quietly. Very quietly..
FDA Widens Import Alert (To Put It Mildly), Concedes That Animal Fatalities Number In The Thousands
Tags: Melamine, Contaminated Chickens, Vegetarian
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I passed on this story yesterday, since there seemed to be some confusion about whether or not the "copy and paste" allegation amounted to something illegal or simply stupid. Today, the story’s being fleshed-out with some additional information that warrants your time.
Pump bid for New Orleans may have been rigged.
When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, “it copied the specifications — typos and all — from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract.” That manufacturer: MWI. “MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President George W. Bush’s brother, to market its pumps [...]
Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, MWI
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Wasn’t May Day a bigger deal when we were kids? Just askin’. What happened to it? Supplanted, I guess, by "Mission Accomplished". Time to find a flagpole and put my dancin’ shoes on.
Until then, read on…
Today’s Must Read
I think we’ve identified a rule of Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department: the more senior you are in the leadership, the less of a clue you have of what’s going on there. We were all treated to Gonzales’ historical display of [...]
Tags: Gonzales, Department of Justice
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