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Tag: crony capitalism

Nancy Nord – oh please

Nancy Nord – oh please

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Nancy A. Nord was nominated by President George W. Bush to be a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for a term that expires in October of 2012. The CPSC is supposed to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury and death associated with consumer products. You know, lead. Things like that. Nord is also the president of Executive Women in Government, a nonprofit professional women’s organization. Sorry, women. In two different letters, Nancy Nord has asked…

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Thoughts on where we are in America

Thoughts on where we are in America

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Where are we, America? March 20th will be the four-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion and subsequent occupation. We’ve succeeded in making a bad situation worse for the people of Iraq. We’ve killed and been killed. We’ve drained our financial resources for the foreseeable future, and handed out contracts to such ilk as Halliburton. The oil profits are still being debated, but does anyone believe that the Iraqi people will benefit? A majority of the soldiers themselves thought they should…

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No Permanent Bases in Iraq – Sign Biden’s Petition

No Permanent Bases in Iraq – Sign Biden’s Petition

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I support Senator Biden’s Amendment to bar any funds from being used to establish permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq or to control Iraq’s oil. I disagree with Biden’s stated opinion on the following points: I don’t think it’s at all “obvious to most Americans” that we have no designs or Iraq’s oil or strategic control of bases, nor do I believe that such topics can so easily be pushed off into the realm of “conspiracy theory” tinfoil-hatland anymore. I…

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Iraq for Sale

Iraq for Sale

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Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq — much of it from U.S. taxpayers. “Lucrative U.S. government contracts go to firms called on to provide security for projects and personnel — jobs that in previous conflicts have been done by the military” (and under military regulations). From Hunter at Daily Kos, on the Aegis contractor video (complete with Elvis soundtrack): And so the circle — or spiral — continues. For those with short memories, it was the…

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Port Questions – Et tu Dole?

Port Questions – Et tu Dole?

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It turns out that former Majority Leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole was hired last year as a legal consultant by Dubai Ports World to shepherd the deal through, courtesy of Alston & Bird. Wife Sen. Elizabeth Dole says that she is "deeply concerned" about operations at six U.S. ports being controlled by Dubai Ports World (owned, in case you somehow hadn’t heard, by the United Arab Emirates – AUE). Congrats on her "independence" – I guess. I have several…

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Reality will not be overthrown

Reality will not be overthrown

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The United States has, until now, been a (if not "the") world leader in scientific research and the development of technologies. This has been the backbone of public policies that navigate reality, and it has brought us our highish standard of living and our economy of relative priviledge. But I think we’re on the way out of that role. When ideologies replace knowledge, it is always the people who pay. Certain fundamentalist groups, suspicious of all intellectuals, "eggheads," and independent…

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