The Cheney Observer
UAL Union Asks For Pension Probe
Neil Weinberg, 06.22.05, 6:15 AM ET
NEW YORK - A union representing 16,000 airline ground workers is calling on the U.S. government to investigate possible wrongdoing in the management of United Airlines' pension fund.
The request came in a June 20 letter from the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Bradley Belt, executive director of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the government body charged with taking over insolvent private pension plans--which has never conducted a forensic audit of any of the plans it has taken over.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/06/22/ual-pension-forensic-audit-cz_nw_0622ual.html?partner=daily_newsletter
Bechtel unhappy over Centre’s stance on Dabhol
SANJAY JOG
Posted online: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 at 0119 hours IST
MUMBAI, JUNE 20: Bechtel has fired yet another salvo against the Government of India (GoI) for taking a rigid stand on offering compensation for its claims in the Dabhol project.
“Bechtel, like GE, would prefer to arrive at a compromise, but GoI has failed to take the necessary steps to end. It will not even offer the barest acceptable compensation for our equity and contractor claims, net of tax. Despite our conciliatory proposals for dealing with creditors, GoI insists on denying us legal recourse for potential claims it created by the closure of the Dabhol power plant,” Bechtel’s spokesperson Marshall Jonathan told FE in an e-mail response.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=94376
Jeff Frederick and Tom DeLay
Filed under: Lowell @ 5:06 am
As usual,
Waldo Jaquith’s been doing some fine work over at his blog. This time it’s about Republican Virginia House Delegate Jeff Frederick (R-Prince William) and his “mystery fundraiser” with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Waldo’s digging deserves more attention, so I’m mentioning it here as well.
It turns out that the ethically- and legally-challenged DeLay held a fundraiser for Frederick on April 19, but, according to Waldo, the State Board of Elections is missing one thing: “any evidence of the party.” Waldo concludes that “[e]ither Del. Frederick’s campaign is violating Virginia election law, or this was the lamest fundraiser ever. ” So which is it, Del. Frederick? Time to put in a call to Chris Piper over at the State Board of Elections’ compliance section?
http://www.raisingkaine.com/blog/?p=402
One Committee's Three Hours of Inquiry, in Surreal Time
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A06
Yesterday's Senate hearing into superlobbyist Jack Abramoff's alleged defrauding of Indian tribes had something for everyone. There was the yoga instructor who took the Fifth. There was the lifeguard selected to run a think tank from a beach house at Rehoboth. And there was Exhibit 31, an e-mail from Abramoff to a rabbi friend.
"I hate to ask you for your help with something so silly but I've been nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, which is a very distinguished club in Washington, DC, comprised of Nobel Prize winners, etc.," Abramoff wrote. "Problem for me is that most prospective members have received awards and I have received none. I was wondering if you thought it possible that I could put that I have received an award from Toward Tradition with a sufficiently academic title, perhaps something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202100.html
Chinese Oil Producer Makes Bid For Unocal
CNOOC's Unsolicited Proposal Tops Price Accepted From Chevron
By Gary Gentile
Associated Press
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page D01
LOS ANGELES, June 22 -- China's third-largest oil producer made an unsolicited $18.5 billion bid Wednesday for oil-and-gas company Unocal Corp., which has already agreed to be acquired by Chevron Corp. for $16.6 billion.
Unocal acknowledged the offer from state-run CNOOC Ltd., an affiliate of China National Offshore Oil Corp., to buy the company for $67 a share in cash. Unocal, based in El Segundo, Calif., said it would evaluate the bid but that its board's previous recommendation to shareholders to accept the Chevron offer remained in place.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202309.html
Mail and Guardian
SA 'irritated' by UK call on Zimbabwe
Pretoria, South Africa
23 June 2005 01:48
A South African government spokesperson expressed irritation on Thursday at a so-called bogeyman approach being used to scare African countries, like children, into conforming with the West.
"I am really irritated by this 'kgokgo' approach", presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said when approached for comment on a call by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for African action against Zimbabwe.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243688&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Zim army to rebuild after eviction sweep
Michael Hartnack Harare
23 June 2005 11:37
The Zimbabwean government is mobilising soldiers to build houses for the thousands of people it forced from their homes in an urban clean up campaign that has drawn condemnation at home and abroad, a spokesperson said on Thursday.
The announcement comes as Zimbabwe prepares for the visit of a special United Nations envoy coming to see the impact of Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, which the UN estimates has left up to 1,5-million people homeless. The political opposition, which has its base among the urban poor, says the four-week-old campaign is meant to punish its supporters.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243683&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Zimbabwe crackdown sparks violence
Harare
22 June 2005 02:07
The Zimbabwe government's campaign to clear the homes, businesses and even gardens of the poor from its cities has sparked more violence, a pro-government newspaper reported on Wednesday even as state radio claimed those displaced were being provided for.
The United Nations estimates up to 1,5-million people are homeless after police burned or demolished their shacks in what the government calls a “clean-up” campaign in the cities.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243638&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Zim extends crackdown to rural areas
Harare, Zimbabwe
17 June 2005 03:53
Zimbabwe has extended the destruction of informal homes and businesses from the cities to rural areas, police told state radio on Friday.
The government calls the campaign a cleanup effort, but critics at home and abroad say it is a violation of human rights and inspired by politics.
Police spokesperson Austin Chikwavara said his force has started tearing down shacks and kiosks found at major crossroads in Chirumanzu, Umvuma and Lalapanzi in the Midlands area, 200km – 300km south of the capital, Harare.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243383&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Civil society can be a powerful force for change
Yasmin Sooka: COMMENT
20 June 2005 10:24
South Africa’s richly plural civil society was forged in the struggle for liberation, but over the past five years its impact on policy and legislation has become less effective than it should be.
The African National Congress has made the shift from liberation movement to governing party, but civil society has not quite figured out how to move beyond its old, oppositional role.
During the 1990s organisations from human rights bodies and welfare groups to churches enjoyed an unprecedented level of access to government structures and to ministers, exchanging views and providing advice on the important issues. It was a heady period, and organisations revelled in their new role as partners in the reconstruction of our society.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243461&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
Capitalism: A curse, not cure
David Masondo: COMMENT
17 June 2005 08:59
The 1976 June uprising opened the floodgates for popular struggles, which ultimately made racial capitalism unprofitable. In response to this, Zac de Beer, the then-director of Anglo American, said: “We all understand how years of apartheid have caused many blacks to reject the economic and political system … We dare not allow the baby of free enterprise to be thrown out with the bath water of apartheid.”
De Beer’s response was a call for reform and defence of capitalism as a system run by capitalists or entrepreneurs who, like parasites, prey on the working class. His vision was of a post-apartheid rainbow parasitism in which the race, gender and age of parasites must be reformed. From this perspective, the process of “transformation” is meant to incorporate women and black people in the capitalist structures of production, distribution and consumption.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243344&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
Time to say 'never again'
Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya: COMMENT
17 June 2005 08:59
Who stops blacks from taking their children to the Hector Pieterson Memorial? (Photograph: Paul Botes)
The El Al aircraft veered east around northern Sudan. Instead of flying over the Egyptian airspace, it flew over the Red Sea.
On board was a group of 250 South Africans of Jewish ancestry en route to Tel Aviv, where they would catch a connecting flight to Poland. There, they would commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation from the Auschwitz death camp of Jews, Poles, homosexuals and gypsies by the Allied forces.
About 4 000 years after Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, and 60 years after the descendants of Moses’s flock suffered at the hands of the Nazis, the pilgrims were not taking a chance with their survival.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243332&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
What the hell happened?
Charles Lewis: COMMENT
17 June 2005 08:59
It wasn’t supposed to happen in the new South Africa, the country of Nelson Mandela that in the 1990s came to symbolise hope, resilience and the “long walk to freedom”, an indelible inspiration to the entire world.
No, it wasn’t supposed to happen anymore, preventing a newspaper from publishing a story about potential lawbreaking by the powers that be, about the government, its ruling political party and a favoured company.
Specifically, the journalists had discovered that, just before the general elections last year, substantial taxpayer funds from state-owned oil company PetroSA apparently went to the African National Congress by way of a private company called Imvume Management.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=243318&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
St. Petersburg Times
Eminent Domaine. Good-bye Florida shorelines. Owning property is a 'short term' investment or for a sincere 'homestead' but speculation for long term gains is all too questionable. This directly attacks the Conservation Groups that purchase lands in perpetuity to protect precious lands from environmental demise. What is to protect the parks from financial attack as well. This plays right into the political agenda of Bush via the Interior Department. There will not be any need for the EPA unless there is legislation from the Federal Government to reverse this decision protecting the investment of THE AMERICAN DREAM. I don't see an option. This is a move toward a communistic and overbearing federal authority. Property rights is one of the promises of what was an emerging democracy in Russia. That very right has been removed from every citizen in the USA with this decision. The 'Real Estate' bubble just burst, especially to low income areas which are usually minorities and single women with families !! Local authorities can pass bills as well to protect property owners as well as state legislatures. I strongly suggest that is done and soon. Ever hear of 'Emergency Session?'
Gulf oil back on Senate's reserve list
By WES ALLISON and ANITA KUMAR
Published June 22, 2005
WASHINGTON - With oil prices nearing $60 a barrel, the good will toward Florida finally ran dry.
After agreeing last week to maintain the existing moratorium on oil and gas drilling off Florida's shores, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday moved forward with conducting an inventory of energy reserves in all U.S. waters, including the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
By a vote of 52-44, the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Florida's senators that would have deleted the inventory from the comprehensive energy bill now moving through the Senate.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/22/Worldandnation/Gulf_oil_back_on_Sena.shtml
Just as with Elizabeth Dole. It is easy to take an 'empty' stand against Big Oil for political favoritism among constituents when the politician knows no matter the stand they take will make no difference when there is a majority otherwise. If a legislature wants to exploit the shores of Florida and the Governor's Veto will be overridden why would he side with a legislature when taking 'the popular environmental' view insures a better outcome in an election. When a politician takes a stand I want to know what they have know besides vote to STOP a dangerous trend in a legislative body. ACTION to stop a runaway legislature is more important than the political posturing for voters. Jeb Bush has wrongly pursued an expensive investigation in the Schivo Case. What then has he done in Florida and otherwise within his own family circle to stop this counterproductive trend?
Bush stresses his commitment against oil drilling
He says critics have misunderstood his comments about a 100-mile buffer.
By WES ALLISON and JONI JAMES
Published June 17, 2005
WASHINGTON - The way Gov. Jeb Bush has been referring to protecting Florida from offshore drilling has prompted some legislators to question his commitment to keeping drilling rigs as far off the state's shores as possible.
As lawmakers battle congressional attempts to open the state's waters to more oil and gas exploration, the governor has made several statements about the importance of maintaining "a 100-mile buffer" around Florida's coast.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/17/State/Bush_stresses_his_com.shtml
Michael Moore Today
THE BUSH DYNASTY IS NOT TO CRUMBLE !!
Anti-Bush protester on trial for convention actions
By Daryl Khan / Newsday
In her opening statements in jury room 5 of Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Jessica Troy said: "This is not a case about politics."
However, everything about the case suggested otherwise.
On one side of the courtroom sat protester June Brashares, 41, who unfurled an anti-Bush banner during his acceptance speech. Brashares is on trial for kicking two political operatives who dragged her out of Madison Square Garden, injuring one.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3096
Rumsfeld in Congress hot seat over Iraq
AFP
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top military officers will face a tough Congressional hearing amid mounting doubts among lawmakers and the public over the US presence in Iraq.
With even Republican loyalists now increasingly questioning US policy in Iraq, the Senate Armed Forces Commission will seek get its first chance in four months to grill Rumsfeld and his senior generals.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3090
Lobbyist May Have Cost Tribe Millions
By Adam Nossiter / Associated Press
Though far removed from Washington, the Coushatta Indian tribe quickly learned the cost of influence in the Capitol: "Wire all funds. Professional Services. $3,405,000.00," one of the tribe's lobbyists, now under investigation, wrote the Coushattas in 2002.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3086
DeLay uses Houston to make point about Iraq news coverage
Houston Chronicle
WASHINGTON - When House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sat down with reporters on Tuesday on Capitol Hill, he was asked to assess President Bush's campaign in Iraq and to respond to criticism that the military mission is not going well and the White House needs to develop an exit strategy.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3085
G8 'still sells arms to regimes'
BBC
Countries from the G8 group of wealthy nations have been accused of continuing to sell arms to regimes using them to abuse human rights.
The claim comes in a report published by the Control Arms Campaign - a group made up of organisations including Oxfam and Amnesty International.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3091
Halliburton Scores A Juicy New Contract
AP reports the Bush White House has just handed Halliburton a brand-new contract - worth up to $1 billion - to support U.S. troops in the Balkans.
A Halliburton spokesperson said “This decision is an endorsement of the best-in-class support that KBR provides to the U.S. military worldwide.”
Remember the last time Halliburton was given a contract in the Balkans?
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/06/22/halliburton-scores-a-juicy-new-contract/
Reporters Press McClellan on Secret CIA Report on Iraq
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK At the daily White House press briefing Wednesday, reporters raised with Press Secretary Scott McClellan a bombshell story from Iraq carried earlier Wednesday in The New York Times and wire services, based on a CIA report. Essentially, the questions at the White House boiled down to: Has the invasion and occupation of Iraq actually created more terrorists than it has crushed, and also given them much-needed experience in killing Americans and others?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3097
continued . . .
