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The Spoils of War
By MICHAEL SHNAYERSON
Halliburton subsidiary KBR got $12 billion worth of exclusive contracts for work in Iraq. But even more shocking is how KBR spent some of the money. Former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official Bunnatine Greenhouse is blowing the whistle on the Dick Cheney-linked company’s profits of war
This time, she was sure, they were going to get her.
Bunnatine Greenhouse had been a huge nuisance since the buildup to the war in Iraq-questioning contracts, (…)

By Rick Kelly
Tim Eysselinck worked for RONCO Consulting Corp. in Iraq between August 2003 and February 2004. He headed a de-mining team that was responsible for the clearance of land mines, cluster bombs and other ordinance.
Tim developed post-traumatic stress disorder, and his experiences in Iraq left him disillusioned with the war that he had previously supported. On April 21, 2004, he committed suicide at his home in Windhoek, Namibia, two months after he had resigned from RONCO. He (…)

by Ben Frank
Broken Promises: The Death of Deliberative Democracy
A Congressional Report (pdf) on the Unprecedented Erosion of the Democratic Process in the 108th Congress.
Compiled by the House Rules Committee Minority Office The Honorable Louise M. Slaughter, Ranking Member
Cliff notes by Ben Frank
How Modern Congress works: Lobbyists write the bill and Republicans force it through Congress before anyone has even had a chance to read it. The textbook cases of corruption (…)

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the [voting] machines used in the United States," Teresa Heinz Kerry told a group of Seattle guests at a March 7, 2005 lunch for Representative Adam Smith, according to reporter Joel Connelly in an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Connelly noted Heinz Kerry added that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."
The two brothers Mrs. Kerry is referencing are, according to voting machine expert (and founder of www.BanVotingMachines.org Lynn (…)

Dear Senator Reid,
Since the election, most days, I feel determined. I have become more involved, more passionate, more informed. There is no other choice—because to accept the defeat I felt the day John Kerry made his concession speech is to admit more blackness into my life than I can handle.
I don’t do hopelessness and depression well. I’m a take-action person. Show me where to aim, and I’ll fire. I’ve been proud of the work I’ve done since the election and I’ve been proud of the (…)

In the end the party would announce that 2 plus 2 made 5, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim, sooner or later, the logic of their position demanded it. — George Orwell, in 1984
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Robert Kane Pappas is the director of the mass media-critiquing documentary, beloved by BuzzFlash readers, "Orwell Rolls in His Grave." This week he agreed to revisit George Orwell’s prophetic anti-utopian novel, 1984, and to reflect on recent events in terms (…)

Americablog has been pounding away at this and points to the BBC in this brief: TIME mag White House correspondent tells BBC that GannonGuckert story has "sex, national security, intrigue" - but then Time doesn’t cover it. Bravo.
According to Matthew Cooper, the White House correspondent for Time Magazine, Washington has been lapping up this case of sex and subterfuge in the city.
"It’s got everything that gets gossip going. It’s got sex, it’s got national security, how did he get so (…)

An international NATO conference with all its members and its partners will be held in the north of Sweden on May the 24-25. Among other participants we can see the USA foreign minister Condoleezza Rice and UKs Jack Straw.
It will be held in the part of the country there we act and we and a big number of organisations in Sweden will cooperate to protest loudly against any participation of Sweden in this partnership. We are living in a democratic country and can’t accept an organisation (…)

Sheila Samples: Butt Prints In The Sand
Because in life, there comes a time, When one must fight, and one must climb, When we must rise and take a stand, Or leave our butt prints in the sand.
author unknown
It’s time.
Before this obscene, gaping hole gets any deeper, it’s time we convinced the media to stop digging. As someone once said...and said...and said — time is not on our side. Storm clouds are gathering on the dashboard of our democracy. We must act, sooner rather than (…)

US election could have been hacked, says Kerry wife
The United States presidential election could have been computer hacked, the wife of Democrat candidate John Kerry has claimed.
The United States presidential election could have been computer hacked, the wife of Democrat candidate John Kerry has claimed.
Teresa Heinz Kerry is openly sceptical about George Bush’s victory some four months after the election, questioning the legitimacy of the optical scanners used in some states to (…)