I missed this when it was published a few days ago. Worth a read.

From James Kuntsler: [MORE . . .]

Hmmm. I wonder how many times this sort of thing happened with stimulus money? And how many millions (billions?) were wasted?

From the Post-Dispatch: [MORE . . .]

When I last visited Batumi, the Soviet empire was in its final death throes. Nestled around a fine Black Sea harbor, Batumi had every appearance of a place that had seen finer days. It was grimy, dimly lit, and poorly maintained, the handful of turn-of-the-century Mediterranean-style villas being overtaken by disheveled apartment blocks of the Krushchev era. My handlers insisted on a tour of the city’s principal landmark: a decrepit oil refinery, the beacon of Adjara’s entry into the industrial age. The refinery was filthy and in obvious disrepair, boasting technology at least fifty years out of date, and the casual pollution associated with it was appalling, forcing the natives to avoid the oil-stained beachfronts and polluted waters.

Jumping forward twenty years, I find the city marvelously transformed. The oil refinery has disappeared. In its place is a splendid emerging resort. Long beaches are packed with tourists, the sea is filled with swimmers and boaters, and the sky overhead with hanggliders. Their revels are interrupted only by the steady sound of jackhammers, because Batumi is also in the midst of a construction boom. [MORE . . .]

Wikileaks released thousands of military field reports from six years of the war in Afghanistan, including several asserting that representatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence met with Taliban leaders to coordinate attacks against American troops and plan assassinations of Afghan leaders, and that the Taliban has been using heat-seeking missiles provided to the mujahideen by the United States during Afghanistan's Soviet occupation. The reports also describe widespread corruption among Afghanistan's military and police. “I asked the seven patrolmen we detained to sit and relax while we sorted through a problem without ever mentioning why they were being detained,” one report reads. “Three of the patrolmen responded by saying that they had only taken money from the truck drivers to buy fuel for their generator.” Another report describes what happened after an Afghan civilian protested the rape by a police commander of a 16-year-old girl. “The district commander ordered his bodyguard to open fire on the AC [Afghan civilian],” it says. “The bodyguard refused, at which time the district commander shot [the bodyguard] in front of the AC.” “The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information,” said National Security Adviser General James Jones. “Look,” said a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the reports, “this is nothing new.”^{1 2 3} At least 45 Afghan civilians were killed in Helmand province when a NATO rocket hit a mud house in which they had taken shelter from fighting between NATO and Taliban forces.⁴ A stampede during the Love Parade, an electronic music festival in Germany, killed eighteen people, and an Arab Israeli was sentenced to 18 months for rape after he slept with a woman under the pretense that he was an eligible Jewish bachelor. ^{5 6} [MORE . . .]

As noted previously, the Justice Department’s criminal probe into the U.S. attorneys scandal ended with a “whimper not a prosecution” last week. The Department informed congressional overseers that, even though the probe found serious wrongdoing by senior Department officials, it was unable to string together the evidence needed to bring criminal charges against any of those involved. Now information has emerged that seriously undermines the reputation of former Connecticut U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, tapped by former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to handle the probe. In a report prepared by the Justice Integrity Project, Harvard University’s Nieman Watchdog reports:

Four days before Nora Dannehy was appointed to investigate the Bush Administration’s U.S. attorney firing scandal, a team of lawyers she led was found to have illegally suppressed evidence in a major political corruption case. Andrew Kreig writes that this previously unreported fact calls her entire investigation into question as well as that of a similar investigation by her colleague John Durham of DOJ and CIA decision-making involving torture.

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Michelle Singletary couldn’t quite bring herself to say the word — she used the term “” — but her column otherwise nailed the real story.

Instead of focusing on the politics behind the firing and subsequent redemption of Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod, we should consider what she was trying to tell us when she addressed the NAACP…There is a disturbing and widening gulf between the rich and the poor in America. And it would be even wider except for the fact that so many middle-income families have borrowed their way to a comfortable lifestyle. They are just a paycheck, a divorce or a heath crisis away from financial ruin.

Sherrod said that while working with the white farmer, she realized that the social war we’ve been having isn’t about race but economic inequity.

“Y’all, it’s about poor versus those who have,” Sherrod said in her speech. “It’s really about those who have versus those who don’t, you know. And they could be black; and they could be white; they could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people — those who don’t have access the way others have.”

From November 1964

Some posters on Strictly Platonic want to buy things for other people; some posters want things bought for them. One woman is eager to listen to any guy, any guy at all, natter on about Park Slope in Brooklyn — “You can show me where you like to shop, tell me some history about the area or chitchat about whatever you want” — if he will treat her to a single glass of wine. Another one is willing to pick up the tab for everything and even prove that his wife knows he is on Craigslist looking for female friends, if a woman will just go see some plays with him. –“What Platonic Means on the Internet,” Virginia Heffernan, New York Times Magazine

Ink-stained wretches succumb to soured morale; the stupidity of short skimming; when Hell meets graphic design

Not until the heyday of Progressivism in the 1910s did writers begin to advocate an ideal of objectivity for the press, and not until the years following the Second World War did major newspapers and magazines begin to uphold with any consistency that standard in the newsroom while relegating political opinion to the editorial page. By the middle of the twentieth century, reporters were expected to strive for neutrality, compiling a litany of unbiased facts that were presented to readers who would then discharge their civic duties by making political decisions in their light. It truly was the high tide of postwar liberalism. –“American Journalism Comes Full Circle,” Damon Linker, The New Republic

Consumer Reports don’t need no stinking iPods, pads, or macs; Flashwalk 2010! come to where the streets grow green with discarded mary jane

It is considered impolite to inquire after a bear’s sexual habits, since what may seem promiscuous to humans is accepted and even encouraged among bear populations. Think of it as an opportunity for cultural education and cross-pollination. Of course, a bear’s laissez-faire attitude toward sex in public can be awkward during cocktail parties. Providing guests with pepper spray may help reduce the number of unwanted advances. A bear’s weight is an issue of particular delicacy and should be broached only in exceptional situations. Keep in mind that an undernourished bear risks death during hibernation. Try to support the bear’s pursuit of obesity during autumn months by promoting a home environment in which the bear can cultivate a healthy self-image. Mottos such as “Hurray for hyperphagia!” and “Eat now, sleep later,” make delightful and educational refrigerator magnets. –“Living with Bears: A Practical Guide,” Jenny Williams, Swink

Rangel wrangle! you can’t refuse the refuse tax, folks; booze: here, there, never anywhere

Coney before the Fall.

With the kind permission of C.H. Beck Verlag, former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and Columbia University historian Fritz Stern, we present here the second in a series of excerpts from the bestselling book Unser Jahrhundert—Ein Gespräch, in an original English translation.

[MORE . . .]

At his SpyTalk blog at the Washington Post, Jeff Stein reports on why the congressional probe into the Manas fuel contracts has been stagnant. It seems that Red Star/Mina Corp., the shadowy London-based companies who are beneficiaries of roughly $1½ billion in Pentagon fuel contracts, were using their overseas registries to avoid complying with congressional queries—ultimately leading the Oversight Committee to issue formal subpoenas and involve the U.S. Marshalls. Now, Stein reports, the congressional investigators have a compliance agreement:

After weeks of tense negotiations, a House oversight subcommittee has gotten promises of cooperation from two secretive companies at the center of allegations regarding corruption in aviation fuel contracts at the big U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan. The objects of the panel’s attention are Douglas Edelman, a Californian with extensive business experience in Moscow and Central Asia, and Erkin Bekbolotov, a Kyrgyz national. The men are partners in Red Star Enterprises and Mina Corp. Ltd, firms that were awarded sole-source, classified, $1.4 billion Defense Department contracts to supply fuel to Manas in 2002.

[MORE . . .]

No, not another report from Guantánamo. Ha’aretz reports that an Israeli court has cleared the way for the publication of a hitherto unknown work by the reclusive writer whose works cast such a shadow over the twentieth century.

A judge at Tel Aviv District Family Court on Tuesday rejected a request for a gag order on the contents of a box containing manuscripts written by Franz Kafka. Eva Hoffe, the Israeli woman who inherited the documents, was asked to pay court costs to the National Library and attorney Ehud Sol, the manager of the estate of Kafka’s close friend Max Brod. Judge Talia Pardo also instructed attorneys Tuesday to prepare a detailed list of the items in the safe deposit boxes to be published, which include all documents except the personal items of Esther Hoffe, Eva’s mother, who served as Brod’s secretary. Details on the other items—manuscripts by Kafka, Brod and others—will all ultimately be published.

[MORE . . .]

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama offered a lengthy, detailed critique of the way the Bush Administration had undermined the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). “We need more transparency in government,” he argued. He came into office showing signs of acting on his promise. In a memo instructing agencies to treat FOIA requests with a presumption of validity, he wrote:

The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears,

[MORE . . .]

I don’t think all these Daily Caller stories demonstrate that Journolist was a grand liberal media conspiracy, and almost everyone writes intemperate, sarcastic emails from time to time that would be embarrassing if leaked. Who cares?

Still, if this were a conservative listserv that had been leaked I don’t think liberal writers would be too outraged about privacy issues. And in fact, if you are writing anything in an electronic form that can be forwarded, you have essentially relinquished your right to privacy. Politicians don’t have it, why should journalists? [MORE . . .]

The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department’s two-year-long internal criminal probe into the U.S. attorney’s scandal has closed without bringing criminal charges. As usual, the Department waits for the dog days to deliver its report, hoping no one will pay it any attention.

The Bush Administration’s Justice Department’s actions were inappropriately political, but not criminal, when it fired a U.S. attorney in 2006, prosecutors said Wednesday in closing a two-year investigation without filing charges. The decision closes the books on one of the lingering political disputes of the Bush Administration, one that Democrats said was evidence of GOP politics run amok and that Republicans have always said was a manufactured controversy. Investigators looked into whether the Bush Administration improperly dismissed nine U.S. attorneys, and in particular New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, as a way to influence criminal cases. The scandal added to mounting criticism that the administration had politicized the Justice Department, a charge that contributed to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

[MORE . . .]

From the New York Times:

A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.

In the survey, commissioned by the rig’s owner, Transocean, workers said that company plans were not carried out properly and that they “often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig.” Some workers also voiced concerns about poor equipment reliability, “which they believed was as a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over planned maintenance,” according to the survey, one of two Transocean reports obtained by The New York Times.

“At nine years old, Deepwater Horizon has never been in dry dock,” one worker told investigators. “We can only work around so much.”

From the Washington Post:

Three out of every four lobbyists who represent oil and gas companies previously worked in the federal government, a proportion that far exceeds the usual revolving-door standards on Capitol Hill, a Washington Post analysis shows.

Key lobbying hires include 18 former members of Congress and dozens of former presidential appointees. For other senior management positions, the industry employs two former directors of the Minerals Management Service, the since-renamed agency that regulates the industry, and several top officials from the Bush White House. Federal inspectors once assigned to monitor oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico have landed jobs with the companies they regulated.

With more than 600 registered lobbyists, the industry has among the biggest and most powerful contingents in Washington. Its influence has been on full display in the wake of the BP oil disaster: Proposals to enact new restrictions or curb oil use have stalled amid concerted Republican opposition and strong objections from Democrats in oil-producing states.

From Haaretz:

Lawyers for the Arab man convicted of rape by deception and sentenced to 18 months in prison, say they are considering an appeal to the High Court of Justice. Sabbar Kashur, 30, had consensual sex with a woman after he posed as a Jewish bachelor interested in a long-term relationship. When the woman found Kashur was not a Jew but an Arab, she filed a police complaint that led to charges of rape and indecent assault…

In the past, men who misrepresented themselves in this way were convicted of fraud. One such case was that of Eran Ben-Avraham, who told a woman he was a neurosurgeon after which she had sex with him, and was convicted of three counts of fraud.

Elkana Laist of the Public Defender’s Office yesterday said the Jerusalem District Court had gone too far in its application of the approach of the High Court, “opening the door to a rape conviction every time a person lies regarding details of his identity. Every time the court thinks a reasonable woman would not have had sex with a man based on that representation, the man will be charged with rape. That approach is not accepted around the world either.”