The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
A general category for things related to our society and how we interact with one another.
The reconstruction of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama provides a fascinating picture of how the Bush administration actually works. His government represents an odd melding of corporatism and cronyism, more in tune with the workings of 1930s Italy or Spain. In fact, if one looks at fascist regimes of the 20th century, it is appears that the Bush administration draws more from these sources than traditional conservatism.
Read moreWith great fanfare, and recalling the “Gingrich Revolution” of the 1990s, House conservatives yesterday proposed a broad set of spending cuts they said would help offset the costs of the Katrina reconstruction effort. Their plan reduces the budget by $500 billion over 10 years, and does so in large part by dismantling programs that invest in middle- and working-class Americans.
Read moreNot only did Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary serve U.S. troops in Iraq spoiled food (sometimes a year past the expiration date), but also contaminated water from Iraq’s Euphrates River, containing “numerous pathogenic organisms” at nearly two times the normal contamination levels of untreated water. “[R]aw sewage is routinely dumped less than two miles from the water intake location.”
Read moreIn the wake of Hurricane Katrina, lawmakers of all political stripes have used the “political climate suddenly altered by the hurricane to try to advance long-stalled, sometimes controversial initiatives.” For example, Texas conservative Rep. Joe L. Barton is once again fighting to open up fragile coastal regions to offshore oil drilling, an idea that languished in Congress earlier this year.
Read moreStock prices for Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) fell 15 percent in late July, but not before Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist unloaded his family’s shares. HCA is the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, founded by Frist’s father and directed by Frist’s brother, who is also a leading stockholder.
Read moreTaking his cues from former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez has decided to make the War on Porn “one of the top priorities” of the AG’s office. In early August, the FBI’s Washington Field Office sent around a job listing to recruit eight federal agents, a supervisor and support staff to take on “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography.
Read moreI thought I would make this post about Katrina, and try to move on to other things. It is a horrible disaster, and we all need to know what is going on, and understand how over government agencies are (or are not) responding to this disaster. That being said, I think there’s some fatigue to all the coverage.
Read moreI can’t say enough about this article, and its call to true Christians to reject the regligious zealots, and turn America away from becoming a theocracy.
Read moreGeorge Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi was going up to bed when his wife told him that he’d left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things. He phoned the police, who asked “Is someone in your house?” and he said “no”.
Read moreA trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren’t receiving help from authorities.
Read moreHere is a report of your Federal Government’s response to Hurricane Katina and the flooding of New Orleans on Wednesday — two days into the crisis. No one in charge. How scary is that? The biggest disaster on our shores in a century, and our government’s leaders were AWOL. Our President’s deer-in-the-headlights reaction to the 9/11 attacks was no fluke. For all his tough talk, the man simply does not know what to do when things go really, really wrong.
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