by TChris

Twenty years of experience with government procurement taught Bunnatine Greenhouse to recognize a bad deal. Her experience didn't prepare her for the consequences of asking questions that the Bush adminsitration expected to remain unvoiced.

A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

Greenhouse rejected a pointed suggestion to take early retirement, and her lawyer says the Army secretary's approval of her demotion violates a commitment to wait until the inspector general had finished his investigation.

Mr. Kohn said that when he telephoned Dan Meyer, director of civilian reprisal investigations in the inspector general's office, on Aug. 24, Mr. Meyer was "shocked" to learn that the corps had proceeded against Ms. Greenhouse. Mr. Meyer said that he was immediately opening a "civilian reprisal" investigation and faxed forms to Mr. Kohn to initiate the process, Mr. Kohn said.

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

Thirty-five years ago this week, the song "War" by Edwin Starr first topped the charts. It stayed Number 1 for three weeks.

Coincidentally, during that same three weeks in 1970, I was preparing for my conscientious objector status hearing before my local Draft Board. I was in my first week of law school. That song helped steel my nerve to go before what was believed to be the most hostile in the state. In early September, I persuaded the Draft Board that a war of U.S. aggression in another country that involved no safety interest of the U.S. was morally objectionable and worthy of conscientious objector status.

It was the first "case" I ever won. When I left the hearing, "War" was playing on the car radio. I was physically and emotionally drained, and, to this day, I never uttered a bad word about those who served because they had no choice. One of those remarkable coincidences in life....

The more things change, the more they remain the same:

by TChris

John Schweer, a security guard and former police officer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was killed with a shotgun in 1977. Two black teenagers were charged with his murder. Prosecutors failed to provide the defense with reports concerning a 47-year-old white man who carried a shotgun while walking his dogs in the area. The man seems like a good suspect:

The man had been a suspect in a 1963 slaying and had faced gun charges. The man failed a lie detector test when asked if he had shot John Schweer, a police report concluded.

Despite having alibis, the teens, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, were convicted on the testimony of individuals who have since recanted. Harrington and McGhee have sued Pottawattamie County Attorney Dave Richter, his assistant Joseph Hrvol, and Council Bluffs police detectives Daniel C. Larsen and Lyle W. Brown, alleging that the police and prosecutors framed them in a racially motivated conspiracy.

This is quite a sobering statistic:

More journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March, 2003, than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday.

Think Progress reports:

From the 6/6/05 New Orleans City Business:

In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding…The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.

....Landrieu said the Bush administration is not making Corps of Engineers funding a priority. “I think it’s extremely shortsighted,” Landrieu said. “When the Corps of Engineers’ budget is cut, Louisiana bleeds. These projects are literally life-and-death projects to the people of south Louisiana.”

Also, here's why there was no national guard to assist in evacuation by buses to safe shelters in unaffected communities, rather than leaving the poor and infirm in town

A similar warning that New Orleans would cease to exist causing thousands to face death if they remained, was given in 2004. [hat tip Patriot Daily.]

In fact, as Norwegianity pointed out last night, Fox made a aired a movie, Oil Storm, about it in June. From the synopsis:

I just saw the Cindy Sheehan ad directed to President Bush on CNN. It is powerful. You can watch the ad at Gold Star Families for Peace.

Here's Cindy's latest entry at Huffingington Post.

Chris Swecker, the Assistant Director of the FBI's criminal division, says now it would take "a cartel" to get the FBI involved in a drug bust. The agency, Swecker says, has shifted to terrorism.

Drug crimes largely have been ceded to the Drug Enforcement Agency, while the U.S. Marshals Service now apprehends all but the most violent fugitives. Investigation of bank robberies, once a signature FBI duty, and large swaths of white-collar crime are also largely off the bureau's to-do list.

What's left? Public corruption, civil rights violations, organized crime - including gangs, major white-collar crime and certain kinds of violent offenses. The rationale is simple: The bureau now focuses on crime that might shed light on terror or that no other law enforcement agency can pursue.

Two released sex offenders who were on a registration list available on the Internet have been murdered. A man is believed to have posed as an FBI officer, went to their apartment and shot them.

The man presented himself to the three roommates as a member of the FBI and said he wanted to talk to them about their Level III sex offender status, according to police.

The fake FBI agent told the roommates that one of them was on a “hit list” on an Internet site, according to the police. The roommate who reported the deaths left while the FBI imposter was still there, Ambrose said.

Is this an isolated case of vigilante justice, or will this be the beginning of a trend?

by TChris

The right wing built its power by embracing extremism, but surely those who still claim to be “compassionate conservatives” will publicly oppose this hate mongering:

Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending the United States, a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq. …

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist Church in, Topeka, Kan., contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. …

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."

Remember when the left was denounced for “fuzzy thinking”? What about denouncing unthinking hatred?

Update: New Orleans has been spared a direct hit by the most damaging part of the hurricane. There was still plenty of damage though.

Red Cross Online Donation Form or call 1-800-HELP-Now. Use the Red Cross, they know what they're doing.

I've been writing about Katrina and New Orleans since yesterday. I'm glued to the tv. Part of it is that New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in America. I'm there at least two times a year, usually for legal meetings - it's a favorite of just about every organization I belong to - but also because for more than 20 years I have gone there just for weekend jaunts and it never disappoints. I have stayed with friends on Lake Ponchetrain as well as in the hotels. The restaurants, art galleries, shopping, local historical sites, the beignets, the bars, the music venues, Mardi Gras, the Jazz Festival, even the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals where I've argued cases, are an indelible part of my memories.

Here's a place for your thoughts on New Orleans, your memories and your best wishes for those imperiled by this disaster.

Kudos to:

• Office Depot (my favorite office supply store) which has already pledged $1 million to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

• Anheiser-Busch is shipping 300,000 cans of water.

If you want to help, do so through the Red Cross. Send money, not goods. Here's the donation link, or call 1-800-HELP-NOW

Official description of possible damage:

Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks...perhaps longer. At least one half of well constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail...leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed.

The majority of industrial buildings will become non functional. Partial to complete wall and roof failure is expected. All wood framed low rising apartment buildings will be destroyed. Concrete block low rise apartments will sustain major damage...including some wall and roof failure.

High rise office and apartment buildings will sway dangerously...a few to the point of total collapse. All windows will blow out.