Disastrous Oil Slick Must Stir A Mighty Wind

For anyone trying to minimize the effects of the spill British Petroleum and Halliburton are responsible for, try this one on for size. Or this. Or that. Seriously, it's huge.

Now imagine that instead of having these impossible events occurring every few years (actually every month or so), we could fuel our planet from the wind that naturally blows across the surface of the ocean. A meteorlogist can explain it better than I, but basically at the coasts the temperatures differ between a moderate ocean and a warmer or cooler landmass, which propagates wind. The question is, why do some of us scream "Drill, Baby, Drill!" when we could have something much better.

From The NY Times:

The United States does not have a single offshore wind turbine, though there are more than 800 off the coast of nine European countries. So what do the wind gauges outside New York Harbor tell us?

“There is a lot of power out there,” said Brian A. Colle, a professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Stony Brook University. “We are in a pretty nice location for the winter and for the warm seasons.”

The city and Long Island are now speaking to manufacturers and developers about building a wind park in the ocean about 13 miles from Rockaway, producing enough energy to power 250,000 homes.

This tragic event might just contain a silver lining to jump start an off-shore wind industry in America. The problem up until now is that the oil industry has dominated and the federal government has done next to nothing for decades to change our nation's energy equation. Critics will contend, and rightly so, that wind is erratic and never blows at a consistent rate, even in the best locations. However, with a system advocated for within the article referenced above that places turbines up and down the coast, the wind will be harnessed on a level that has never been seen before. On top of that, oil boosters conveniently leave out the fact that the price of oil is far greater than what the New York Stock Exchange claims it to be. Not only will there tab in the tens of billions for this one oil spill, but the U.S. taxpayer pays in more ways than they are generally aware.

The reality is, it is time for a new direction and President Obama should switch gears by letting go of trying to love oil and wholeheartedly embrace renewable energy.....bipartisanship be damned.

KBR Finally Being Confronted For Their Criminal And Immoral Behavior

This story is just sickening, I hope everyone involved in these practices are prosecuted to fullest extent of the law, whether that be here in the U.S. or Iraq. Not only does KBR ignore the value of foreign workers' lives, they don't mind treating our own troops worse than garbage.

BBC Helps Uncover Billions In Iraq War Profiteering

It is common knowledge to those trying to follow the details surrounding the Iraq war that profiteering has been going on since the moment we crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq in 2003. Millions, then billions of dollars disappeared from U.S. taxpayer funds meant for the war and seemingly vanished into thin air. That air though isn't thin, it is choked up with the foul stench of greed, callousness and blood money. Thanks to George Bush's Administration, it all came to fruition.

From The BBC:

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.

To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

Not a single thing has been done, save for Democratic pleas for accountability and expressed outrage at hearings led by the intrepid Henry Waxman. However, since George Bush stonewalls accountability, justice and the Democratic attempts to find the truth about the missing $23 billion (or more). The BBC however found a little chunk of it:

The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.

They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.

Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.

How much longer must we suffer these atrocities? Oh yeah, I remember now. It can't come soon enough.

Best Advertisement For War, Inc.

This is an army base in Iraq. Now look at the photo, beyond the soldier and below the American flag, can you tell what that flag is representing?



From Crooks and Liars:

I think the above picture says it all. Sgt. Brent Sammann took this from his overseas Army base, location not divulged, where he wrote in to congratulate Cusack and Co. about the movie. NOTICE THE KBR FLAG, just under the American flag. You gotta be kidding me. On an ARMY BASE? And a very humble thank you for your service, Brent. It took a lot of courage to do this, but hey, you’re a soldier. A very excited John Cusack emailed C&L from London yesterday to thank us bloggers and readers, for supporting War, Inc. in NY and LA. The ticket giveaway really helped. Apparently the movie is, so far, a phenomenal success that is shocking both the film’s distributor and the industry. The film had no real advertising, just bloggers and it ran all viral baby–and yet the per screen numbers of War, Inc. have consistently been close behind the two big budget blockbuster movies of the summer. The producers emailed me this info:

For instance, the per screen average of the new Indiana Jones movie, which also opened last weekend, was approximately $24K, War, Inc. was $18K and the next closest per screen average trailed behind at $7K. This weekend was the same with Sex and the City opening huge at around $18K, Indiana Jones at $11K and War Inc at $10K.

This is a film C&L has gotten solidly behind, as did with MoveOn, because it aims right at the core of the corruption in Cheney/Bush enterprises. Plus—it’s very funny, even though nothing can totally lift the spirits about the whole Iraq debacle. I’ve supported the movie because I thought it was important to talk about the Blackwater-type militias winning multi-million dollar contracts. As I said, the film industry is taking notice.

While the big-budget, large studio movies about the Iraq war all have tanked, John Cusack’s intensely personal film, “War, Inc.,” has survived bad reviews to find an audience in its very limited theatrical release.

Since “War, Inc.” opened May 23 in Los Angeles and New York on only two screens in each city, the film about the privatization of war has been briskly attended, prompting First Look Studios, a small independent company, to expand the movie’s release. It’s adding 10 theaters in both cities Friday, as well as opening the film June 13 in Chicago; Boston; Seattle; Austin, Texas; Berkeley and San Francisco. And it will open June 20 in Washington, D.C.

If you haven't seen this movie, go see it soon. Before you know it that will be our reality unless we wake up and do something about it.

Halliburton Is Killing Our Soldiers

How the f**k is this allowed to happen???



Halliburton officials should be in jail and tried for negligent homicide for crap like this. Our soldiers are in enough danger over there, they should not have to fear the greedy private contractors like Dick Cheney's company.

Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies To Congress

The Bush Justice Department never wanted to hear about her plight, so at least Congress is willing to hear her out....and hopefully do something about it, for her and for all women subjected to the abuses of KBR and Halliburton.

Rightwingers Come To The Aid Of Mercenary Rapists

There really is no low that the right wing can sink to in this country. They'll defend the indefensible as long as it is to the (perceived) benefit of the Republican party. Well winger extraordinaire Bob Owens steps up to meet the challenge that is Jamie Leigh Jones. She is suing KBR and Halliburton for covering up a gang rape that she endured two years ago. It seems that the Bush Administration was also helpful in keeping a lid on things. Now that the media has caught wind of it, mercenaries and the Justice Department is diving for cover. Now who will provide backup for these bastards?

Predictably, the 101st keyboardists are stepping up for duty:

Bob has a number of concerns, e.g. what actually happened to the rape kit, and wonders why an earlier sexual harassment case involving the victim isn’t getting more play. Of course that second point helps rather than hurts the argument that KBR has gender sensitivity problems, so three cheers to Bob for bringing it up.

He ends with this gem:

A third claim made in The Blotter is that in the wake of the alleged rape, Jones was, “…held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR…”

Shipping containers typically found in Iraq (and elsewhere) are either 20’ or 40’ steel and aluminum boxes with little to no ventilation. On the days Jones was confined by KBR (July 29-30, 2005), the mean average temperature was 100-degrees, with air temperatures over 110 degrees for 6 hours straight both afternoons. It seems implausible that a person would survive such conditions without adequate food and water.

As much as it pains me to truth-squad a great writer like Bob Owens, repurposed shipping containers (Container Housing Units, or CHUs) are a fairly common type of housing in Iraq. Indeed, one can’t help asking whatever happened to the proud citizen journalist corps of Graeme Frost fame. Has anybody photographed her countertops yet? Harassed an ex-boyfriend? The only thing to do is keep digging.

And this is only the first couple of days...you know Bob, Michelle Malkin and the rest of that ilk will be looking for any kind of dirt to smear Jamie with. Who cares if she got raped, we have a country George Bush and friends to defend.

If Corporations Are People, KBR Should Be Jailed For Life

Per the 14th Amendment and the Supreme Court, corporations in America are deemed to people in certain situations for their benefit only. If "personhood" was applied thoroughly, KBR and Halliburton would be sentenced to many years in jail for a brutal rape of an employee in Iraq. However, we do not live in a perfect world and the story of Jamie Leigh Jones is an incredibly sad one to hear.

From ABC News:

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave.

Only because a sympathetic guard let her call her father did she get out of that container. Congressman Ted Poe made the necessary calls to get her out and is 100 percent behind her, yet more than two years later, there has been no justice for Jamie.

The government is helping KBR hide her rapists and the company as a whole from litigation. Convenient loopholes have let them escape prosecution. Now Jamie is trying to use the civil courts as a last hope at finding justice, but KBR is fighting her every step of the way. The Bush Administration is of no use to her. If Bush had to choose between a rape victim and a war profiteer corporation, he would always go with the latter.

Even Less Accountability For Halliburton

Over the last few years Halliburton has grown increasingly wealthy from billions in Iraq war contracts. They have been paying taxes on this revenue as a Houston-based company, but that is soon to change. Evidently it is much cheaper to do business out of Dubai where the company can be much closer to all the 'action' that it helps create.