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No doubt it was just a few "bad apples":
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.
"It felt like prison," says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming "20/20" investigation. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened."
Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.
"I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.
Nothing like this has ever happened before. Except for maybe when the drunken Blackwater employee killed a bodyguard for the Iraqi vice president and the State Department helped whisk him out of the country before anyone could investigate.
And here's the kicker:
Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.
Legal experts say Jones' alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.
Thank you, Paul Bremer and Order 17. No charges have been filed against the drunken Blackwater employee either, and for the same reason.
And how about those Blackwater contractors responsible for shooting 17 Iraqis in Baghdad? Not to worry. If Order 17 doesn't get them off the hook, the State Department seems to have offered them legal immunity.
Someone needs to be asking serious questions about the relationship between the government and contractors who seem to be calling all the shots. Why exactly were army doctors handing over a rape kit to Halliburton employees such that they could "lose" it?
I doubt Halliburton is worried. This, in the end, is all that matters.
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I can’t read this story without wanting to scream bloody murder.
Laws are for us little people.
FOG and FOD need not apply.
The so called DOJ should be made a separate branch of government. If something like this happened to my daughter, it might push me over the edge.
Some “nothings” that ever happened, as observed by Hannah Allem of McClatchy:
here
TexBetsy’s on the case
http://texbetsy.headonradionet.....ng-p-and-m
This is a disgrace.
Is it just me or does the choice of photo by ABC suggest she was asking for it?
What do I expect from a company formely run by Dick Cheney, a “man” who still receives money from this horrid company. Cheney doesn’t rape individuals, he rapes countries and kills their woman, their children and the old and sick.
I’ve no doubt Michelle Malkin will say she was asking for it.
A small consolation is that Dick is also old and sick.
And the Republicans have to gall to be proud of the likes of Rudy, Mittie and Huck.
Damn the leadership of the DOJ.
1,691 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
OK Firepups…has ANYone out there had enough??!! Good God…and Harry Reid is afraid ta play hardball with the budget ‘cuz contractors need ta be paid!!! How do we end this charade of representative government…democracy in this country will only be achieved from the street!!
KEEP THE FAITH AND REMEMBER THE CURE FOR FASCISM IS MORE DEMOCRACY!!!
(Comment edited by commenter prior to submission)
When you’re a multi-billion dollar multi-national with direct ties to the White House why worry about some 22 year-old woman who is clearly whining to get on TeeVee?
Honor and Diginity? More like Disrepute and Disgrace. Even the some of the 22% who still worship Preznit Ineffectively Infalliable are probably cringing over this. How long til Michelle Malkkkin publishes this girls medical records and such? My guess, one maybe two news cycles.
Wonder what Cheney would do if one of his kids was raped by “his” company? Or for that matter, what would GWB do?
I read this at RawStory earlier today and there are no words to describe how appalled I was when I read it. How can something like this happen? How can these people not be punished for it? I am beyond disgusted.
Would push me over the edge.
I really like those Barrett .50 calibre rifles.
Does anyone here favor war in any circumstance?
If so, please expect what you’ve got here.
She was wearing make-up and western clothing. She brought it on herself. Oh, I forgot. She’s an American - she used to have a right to wear make-up and western clothing and be the keeper of her own body.
This nasty assault business is part of a pattern of the Bush party.
I read this earlier today and found myself unable to control my anger. Here is where women has to take matters into our own hands because it just won’t happen by war mongers. This is part of the war mongering rite of passage.
Rape is a male problem. The violent act is done by them. Bet someone says, “They heard of some women raping.” Compared to 99.9% of male violence.
I wish to apologize to the men on this site but rape is one of those forbidden subjects we dance around lest we offend the “good and decent” guys. I expect the men to be the ones most outraged by what happened to this woman as well as other women.
When I lived in Bali rape didn’t exist. It didn’t exist because the men in the culture saw it as a male problem and they went after the man or men who committed this act. Men were disgraced. The rape victim went through a ceremony by the priests and was made whole again. She was not disgraced. The offenders were banished and their families felt the shame by the entire community. What a deterrent! There is no way America society will change so women need to drive the demand for justice.
And then there are the reported and unreported sexual assaults committed by the U. S. military in Iraq and elsewhere.
That’s not consolation enough. He will never suffer as his victims have suffered.
I suspect that along with this disgusting situation lurks another, under-reported, very important problem: steroid abuse among contractors. ‘Roid rage is a terrible thing.
I just wanted to emphasize what you said.
After reading the ABC story, I read a few of the comments. Apparently, according to the wingnuts, it’s Clinton’s fault. Their grip on reality is getting weaker every day.
QuakerGirl. I agree with you. I did not know that Bali had such a system. Theirs sounds like a good one.
I don’t expect any action by “new and better”, AG Mukasey or Gates. Do you?
What are the Democratic frontrunners saying about this incident?
And…just when and why did Halliburton dump KBR???
Any day now, Pelosi and Reid may have a comment about this crime.
You know it. Those bald-headed muscle-bound small-peckered ‘roid heads are known to develope anger management issues. Lots of them over there, I’d imagine. Especially with Blackwater. Some Military guys too.
What the hell is happening to this country
of ours.I don’t even recognize it anymore.I feel
terrible for this innocent woman! God I hope it’s not
too late for us!
It seems like it’s time to mention that, no matter how much a post like this may make us feel differently, advocating violence against other people is not permitted at FDL and will result in your comment being removed from the thread.
And Pelosi and the rest are practically begging Bush to take Iraq funding monies.
I’m guessing that Jones’ lawyers will be very interested in that question. If Halliburton is asking that their portion of her suit be dismissed because they divested themselves of KBR, this question becomes critical. They’d love to find something in the Halliburton files that says “gosh, KBR is really exposing themselves legally (and thus financially) because of the lack of supervision and accountability over their employees — let’s dump them before we get sucked into it.”
Can you say “discovery”? How about “subpoena”? Sure you can. And so can Jones’ lawyers.
Yes. I’d sure like to see this investigated.
I remember reading a story about a female military person dying of dehydration in Iraq. Issue was that women did not drink enough water, lest they have to get up and pee in the middle of the night- apparently at least one woman had been raped when she went out to pee.
Wherever there is war - there is rape, torture and murder. Its especially bad in zones where the soldiers can’t go into town and socialize. Good thing they’re all practicing Christian warriors.
Actually, they’d better not, since they would be charged under UCMJ if they were found to have it in their Urinalysis test…
Thank you. That one made me queasy.
God help us. We pay for this government and its subcontractors. Like Pach wrote this weekend, we all have blood on our hands.
Thanks for the reminder. Given that Christy’s a former prosecutor, she takes such things very, very seriously.
If we hadn’t gone into Iraq (based upon presidential and vice-presidential lies) this incident would not have happened.
Question for anyone who knows (and I think I need an answer fast). I tried to digg Jane’s story, and it got back to me asking if it was the same story as one of three other stories. There is apparently a story on Ameriblog that is similar but with a different author and different “publication”. Does that mean I should digg the other one and drop this one? Or can the same story be there with different authors from different blogs?
wsa reading about the Long Island couple ….ENSLAVING their Indonesian maids today!!!!..Merkka is great ,no?
you can digg it here, it’s all ready been submitted
exactly why it is a last resort….we never learn
This is an outrage.
Ultimately, I blame Bush and those who are behind him.
OT
Dana Perino on CSPAN sputtering through press conference
First, b/c they are milquetoasts, they must measure their opinion carefully against the prevailing right-wing sentiment that attractive women may deserve to be raped.
TNX for navigation links at top and bottom. *purrr*
Can one of the fine attorneys out there tell me…
If Bremer’s Order 17 created the loophole that protects KBR and their employees, can’t Jones sue Bremer? Doesn’t he bear the responsibility for creating a lawless zone where US citizens can rape and imprison another US citizen?
“nothing like this happened before” bet that isn’t true in the least. I bet it is commonplace. They probably use indigent sex slaves more often.
I’m just counting down the minutes until Ann Althouse notes that the raped woman has breastesses and shouldn’t have been walking around and stuff with them right there on her chest.
I am sure this has been mentioned but DNI Mike McConnell has an op-ed at the NYT entitled “Help Me Spy on al Qaeda”. It is a plea to extend the horrendous Protect America Act with its basket warrants and retro-active immunity for telecoms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12.....ref=slogin
Basically, McConnell uses the “Be afraid, very afraid” argument.
In other words, support this or the terrorists will kill you.
Here is what McConnell wants:
1. Foreign to foreign surveillance has never been an issue
2. There is broad agreement that this includes such communications if they pass through US switches
3. It is not about privacy protections for terrorists but for ordinary Americans. McConnell apparently has trouble distinguishing between the two
4. There is no discussion of reverse targeting: using a foreign hook to surveil an American
5. McConnell does not mention minimization (what is to be done with incidental communications picked up on Americans) and how he wants the DNI and Attorney General (and not the FISA court) to call the shots on these.
McConnell calls FISA itself “an outdated statute that did not reflect the ways our adversaries communicate.” FISA already has easy, flexible procedures for obtaining a warrant. FISA itself has been modified many times since it was first enacted in 1978. The FISA court has almost never rejected a surveillance request. What this is really about is basket warrants. McConnell wants the power to surveil whole groups and classes of people. This would likely mean that large numbers of Americans would have their communications hoovered up in such operations. You also have to consider the kinds of Americans who would be most likely caught up in them: those of certain ethnic backgrounds, businesspeople, politicians, reporters, and academics.
And, of course, the call for telecom immunity because when corporations break the law it shouldn’t count. As McConnell says, “I served for almost 30 years as an intelligence officer before spending some time in the private sector.” You want to know what he was doing in the private sector? He was director of defense programs at Booz Allen Hamilton, the large defense and intelligence community contractor. He was also chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the NSA and CIA contractors’ trade association. So when he claims, “When I returned to government last winter, it became clear to me that our foreign intelligence collection capacity was being degraded. I was very troubled to discover that FISA had not been updated to reflect new technology and was preventing us from collecting foreign intelligence needed to uncover threats to Americans,” I have to admit to a certain skepticism. Unless he was drunk most of the time, he knew very well what was going on with FISA. He probably had a pretty good idea too about the illegal programs the government and the telecoms were engaged in. But then this is nothing new. McConnell buffaloed a wimpy Congressional leadership into the August version of the Protect America Act with a false terrorist threat to the Capitol. He followed up with lies about how the PAA was used to capture 3 terrorists in Germany and how FISA had somehow delayed surveillance of Iraqis holding kidnapped American soldiers in Iraq.
McConnell has a pattern of lying and this op-ed fits the pattern. It also fits the pattern of the op-ed section of the New York Times being made available to any kook, liar, or neocon who wants to use it.
When a story is first submitted to Digg, they go through (I’m guessing) an algorhythm that searches for key words. When it finds similar wording, it flags as a potential dup. I make sure that they have not already picked up the FDL story I’m submitting and then go on and continue the submit.
I am watching John Edwards on Hardball.
I hope Clinton and Obama cancel each other out with their negative campaigning, and Edwards emerges as the compromise candidate.
I have to wonder if this had happened to a daughter (working, or serving in Iraq) of any of the politicians who refuse to admit their vote to attack Iraq was a mistake, would now change their minds.
Only 22. I hope she has the strength and resources, both monitarily and emotionally, to make Halliburton take a serious hit on this. I hope it is covered over and over and over. I’d love to see Jamie very wealthy.
Sorry for the OT, but could someone explain in one or two sentences what the significance of “Digg” is? I have done some Google searching, but all I am getting are very technical descriptions, not what the overall purpose is.
As things stand now, I will not vote for HRC or Obama in the primary.
If it happened to Jena or Not-Jena, it would probably result in summary execution, via proxy mercenaries, to the perpetrators.
Hugh- keninny had a post up earlier about Dodd’s reply to McConnell.
http://downwithtyranny.blogspo.....ttern.html
Did Tweety just say “Well we don’t like you!” to John Edwards? That’s what it sounded like!
Shipping container? Why didn’t Halliburton just waterboard this victim?
Okay. Now I know I was first, because I remember the number in the “Digg” box was zero when I started. Not knowing what to expect they gave me several choices to make like the title and the comment and the picture. Then when I was done with that, after I submitted the story, they gave me some choices of which of the stories could be a duplicate to the one I was submitting. In the meanwhile, I guess Eureka Springs completed the form and submitted the story while I was asking here about the rules, because her story was not among the choices I was given. So, now I am going to try to Digg it again, but I tried it before I wrote this and it would not let me. Now I’ve learned how this works, better luck to me next time.
There is a not so vague similarity between this woman us. A sense of “helplessness”.
Here is another classic Kommander Decider Guy doing his funny and amusing schtick. Iraq and private military contractors is a funny topic that greatly amuses him.
Q. What law governs the actions of private military contractors?
Kommander. I was going to ask him [Rummy]. Ha Ha Ha. Help! Ha. Ha. Ha.
Q. How do you propose to bring private military contractors under a system of law?
Kommander. I wasn’t kidding. Ha. Ha. Ha…I don’t mean to be dodging the question although it is convenient in this case. Ha. Ha. Ha. THAT IS HOW I WORK. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Here is another one of Iraq’s Funniest and Amusing Videos courtesy of Blackwater.
Pete Stark was correct and Nancy Pelosi as usual was wrong. Kommander Guy is amused. But he is also the Legal Decider Guy so the joke is on us, for thinking Law applies to private military contractors. We now know the Law is what Kommander says it is. Ha. Ha. Ha.
“innocent people…get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”
Pete Stark.
Holding the woman in a shipping container against her will is false imprisonment. No water or food create other legal issues. Seems legal to do anything in Iraq if one knows the right people. Sue Paul Bremer - No rules - just right.
From the KBR website: “HOUSTON - April 5, 2007 - KBR (NYSE:KBR) today announced its separation from Halliburton (NYSE:HAL). KBR has been a subsidiary of the oil services company for the past 44 years. Today’s announcement marks the end of a separation process that began in 2005.”
Thanks for the link. Good for Dodd. What always irritates the hell out of me with McConnell is that he flat out lies. Even when he is caught in a lie, he doesn’t miss a beat. He just lies again.
I don’t think anyone should believe anything he says, certainly not in the Congress or the New York Times.
digg is a way to get the word out, to spread the story around. The more diggs the better!
there are more of these, clearly more, that have not come forward.
this is not nearly as distrubing to me as that video of the snipers just shooting innocent families random on the streatt as they drove on a beutiful day
they were proud of this, they posted it to the tune of some elvis presley movie
these are the stories we’ve heard about, how many have we not heard about?
tom hartman had on a great piece today about rumsfeld and cheney
nixon brokered the detant piece treaty and rumsfeld and cheney would have none of it
rather then piece as soon as ford came to office these two criminals created a “cia b” which was designed to manufacture evidence just like cheney’s propaganda machine about Iraq and Iran
so they made believe russia had nuclear submarines that were undetectable, faster then our subs, totally silent, each equipped with missiles to destroy america, SO SECRETY, even our own cia didn’t know anything about them
the real cia kept saying “NO SUCH ANIMAL”
cheney and rumsfeld said “see?…even the cia doesn’t know about these”
HOLY CRAP
WHY THE HELL ISN’T THAT STORY YELLES AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS?
I had no idea, I didn’t know anything about that but H0W THE HELL DOES RUMSFELD GET TO BE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE when that happened, how the HELL does cheney get to make believe there are ANY threats?
these criminals have a fuhfriggin TRACK RECORD of creating FEAR and creating stories THAT DO NOT EXIST
I have a special request, I am hoping someone on this board does a special blog concerning that story with rumsfeld and cheney
man oh man oh man, I WISH I knew that story before these IDIOTS attacked Iraq
Actually I had another politician’s daughter in mind. ;0)
No, he said “well, we like you!” He does like Edwards, and he especially likes Elizabeth Edwards. He also does not keep that to himself, which is one of his few saving graces.
hey, preview is working for me…first time it has since this side of the glass
very happy
For this, I predict a hat tip on the front page in your immediate future!
I’m sorry for being so obtuse, but I don’t quite understand how it does that.
No! Exactly the opposite. Matthews likes Edwards.
Speak for yourself, but you are wrong. I am not waiting for God. I have NO blood on my hands. I do not think most of the folks deserve that comment. Most of us do our best to stop the madness.
I saw that Q & A session. It is unbelievable. Went to see it via your link. After all this time has passed, there is still no law to govern contractors in Iraq. Its intentional.
When did Dick Cheney sever his relationship with Halliburton? Does Dick still get money from Halliburton directly and KBR indirectly?
According to the story, the embassy would have records of her call for help, the military would have records of her exam or at least that one occurred. Then there is this:
IANAL and am not sure about criminal convictions against the specific individuals involved but “disappearing the rape kit” is pretty much game, set, and match a for a civil suit against KBR.
Nice dissection of the DNI’s B*llsh*t, Hugh! 8-)
Matthews had a great smackdown of Tinkerbell for her thinking it was cute that she didn’t know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was. Tied it into the larger point that none of the dimbulbs in the WH know their history…nor learned anything from what little they supposedly knew.
The appointment of Tinkerbell by the way, is one in a long line of appointments that show Dubya’s utter contempt for America. His appointment to represent ND on the US Civil Rights Commission was a local Republican gadfly whose main claim to fame were her previous career as an exotic dancer and her ongoing advocacy of nudist camps. I don’t think their civil rights are what are at risk.
Apparently powerful people that don’t have much time find it easier to go to Digg for their stories and headlines, as they are more orderly and there are some stories from a number of different blogs. The number of people that thought the story digg-worthy is also considered indicative of the interest level of the story.
Looking at Olbermann.
Bush: what missing torture tapes?
Nixon: what missing 18 1/2 minutes?
KO just stated that McConnell will be in closed sessions with Senate Intel tomorrow and House on Wednesday.
You’re welcome. It’s all just so typical of McConnell and the NYT both.
Because when you win you get to pack government with partronage jobs. It the stupid fuckin system that we have.
The story of this woman breaks my heart. I am sure her case will be taken by some good lawyers and I hope she can identify the animals who abused her and get their pictures pasted all over the media as examples of the great recruits of Blackwater.
Everyday confirms a bit more and more that this country is a nation of idiots and aggressive animals who only think about themselves.
Look at all the pedophile out of control Republicans and Craig has the balls to sit in senate. These people are repulsive.
No one in the right mind wound countenance what the repubs had do, will do… that is anyone who is not wealthy. These people disgust me.
I can’t can’t stand this country. Look at what it is. It’s a disgrace, an embarrassment.
It only gets more and more like alice in wonderland.
All the Spew that’s fit to print… ;-)
It is not just Haliburton. The enormity of what war, and particulary modern war does to all who participate is hard for someone to comprehend if they have not been there. Then it is still hard.
The military sponsors games to civilian youth to get them desensitized to killing. Then it take soldiers in their late teens and early twenties and puts them in tanks with game like music blasting in their ears - yes modern tanks are equipt with music, and send the young men out to paly their game. One of the hardest news videos to see for me was a young man bounding out of his tank to see his “kill” only to find real humans - many civilains. No wonder the suicide rates are so high in this war. We have morphed in to human looking monsters.
If you desensitize people to humanity can rape and humiliation be far behind. This was has to stop and we need to begin to revisit our humanity.
PUSH, Shove, Shut it down.
here’s the wiki link, it explains it better than I can, I hope that helps :)
Wow! Did I really just hear that! The guy that did the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah has come forward (just today, apparently) and said he was waterboarded and he says he has come to decide this is torture!
I find Matthews disconcerting. He will act and talk like a bubbleheaded idiot and then the mists clear and he has a moment of clarity. IUnfortunately, it never seems to last, wish it did.
“Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have
never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn’t touched.
I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that
ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven
terror–of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again
in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme
moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at
some vision,–he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath–
‘The horror! The horror!…’
… Mistah Kurtz– he dead.”
-Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness”
Shouldn’t this break this whole (soon-to-be)case wide open now?
Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture
Fortunately, KO and Turley have no problem with the vapors… 8-)
Thank you, Ann!
Now I understand. I wasn’t getting that the whole idea is that people go to the Digg Web site and see what other people are Digging.
I prefer my own shovel.
Our government (the Republicans) is completely out of control. We are getting close to being nothing better than an authoritarian banana republic.
Oh and btw, Who exactly ordered you to conduct torture?
With nukuler weapons.
I think it is very cool that one of the greatest masters of the English sentence to ever live was not a native English speaker.
I just sent a note to Hardball asking Matthews that if what the Dem candidates do is pandering to special interests in order to win the nomination, what does he call it when the Repubs cater to the Religious Right, demonize brown people, and give so much credence to Grover Norquist and his ilk.
I do not expect a response.
Why do you think Chiquita is such a large contributor to the Repugs…?
everyone needs to read this
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0213-28.htm
this is INCREDIBLE < CAN'T brlieve this wasn't publicized before the attack on Iraq</p>
I can’t friggin believe it
this should be broadcast from now until these crimnals are in jail
man, they have a friggin track record for what they did
how the hell is it I didn’t know this story?
Roy,
very good comment.
My party keeps caving in to GWB. I don’t see anything much in the way of justice coming our way for at least the next year. The Democratic Party is afraid of Bush. I don’t know how else to put it.
OT - Has Olbermann been reading Hugh’s list?
New feature on Countdown starting tonight-
“BUSHED”
- The Top 3 Bush Administration Scandals you’ve forgotten about because of the latest Bush Administration Scandal!
Hmmmmm. Obama takin’ cheap shots against Edwards in Iowa, says Jake Tapper at ABC’s Political Punch.
Thought Mr. O was above all that?
Oh great. I’m eating Republican bananas. ;0)
Better this should be listed under my #99:
The number one question! It goes on from there!
Tie KO’s Bushed with Dan Abrams’ new show, Bush League Justice….a trend emerging?
Sorry, MSNBC, you may have entered the fact-based world again, but I’m still choosin’ Imus over Morning Scar.
Yeah? Chiquita also supports terrorists as well.
I heard the Kiriakou story on ABC News. It seems like part CYA and part a defense of waterboarding. Gee, it was bad but necessary, and we got lots of good info. ABC doesn’t point out that Zubaidah was not the high al Qaeda official he was portrayed to be, he was mentally ill, and pretty much all the info he gave up was crap to satisfy his captors or in a few rare cases when it was real had already been verified through other sources.
Me an Prairie on the RFD!
I gotta love Olbermann. KO referring to Rudy and hs “mistress protection program”.
And the hits just keep on coming. Gawd. I love bananas. What to do? This major. ;0)
Gawd…the commercials…are…hard..to…deal with…tractors and tractor parts…and weed killer, I dunno…and rye seed (actually, I wish I had some)..and then what comes between the commercials is…bo..ring…I had to go…I don’t like Imus, and I don’t like Scarborough; but now that Shuster is on Joe…it is more tolerable…I just hang until I can watch Washington Journal, but I make a side trip over to Amy Goodman…then back to CSPAN….My life…Geez, get me a life….JMHO /s
http://thinkprogress.org/
so you quit in protest but cant say you quit in protest
On the internet radio you get the local NYC feed.
~~~OT - Has Olbermann been reading Hugh’s list?
New feature on Countdown starting tonight-“BUSHED”- The Top 3 Bush Administration Scandals you’ve forgotten about because of the latest Bush Administration Scandal!~~~ (newt) sorry, I haven’t figured out how to quote comments….
WELL! Time for KO watchers to print out Hugh’s scandal list , and start checking off the items! ;)
Thanks ecahn. Horrified by this story.
Thanks! That is good to know!
Heh, ET said it took 62 pages, using 10 point font to produce…! Be very careful… ;-)
Oprah is sounding a lot more ebonical ™ in front of Obama’s crowd than she does on her own show.
For me Ms. Jones’ ordeal is a much larger story than which politician Oprah likes.
Has Imus kept Charles? More importantly, has he kept Bernie? Is he still having some of his wierd friends come in?
Oh, BTW: http://www.netrootsmass.net/Hugh/Bush_list.html
Hugh Makes a List- because there are just too many scandals to remember
Sorry to be so jaded that I think this will have no influence. Quelle dommage.
OK I’m watching Keith and he’s showing clips of Oprah with Obama. All of a sudden she’s talking with a southern drawl. Now I’m not an Oprah watcher but I have seen her from time to time over the years and I’ve never heard her speak southern. Am I mis-hearing?
Well I agree about the commercials, but it’s in its infancy with Imus. And I’ve already done some local lobbying to the Ed Schultz team that they should be talking to RFD about simulcasting his national show.
Although, while I’m working here, I do find the cattle auctions rather soothing background as an alternative to cable “news” programming.
From what I’ve read, he has kept Charles and Bernie and added a couple of black comedians as well.
Well, she did grow up in the Nashville area so it’s probably something she can bring back when necessary. I remember her when she was starting on Nashville TV in the early 70s.
There’s a new thread up, in case anyone is interested, and a new line has been added above here to advise you of that fact, BTW.
Am I projecting, or does there seem to be something a little uncomfortable between Michelle and Oprah?
New Thread…
http://firedoglake.com/2007/12...../#comments
Below is an excerpt from a 2003 Guardian article, describing another contractor’s bad behavior- in Bosnia.
It seems that U.S.-contracted employees are seldom held accountable for sexual crimes- even sexual slavery of children! It’s not just Halliburton and Blackwater we should be concerned about.
—–
Dyncorp . . . a Pentagon favourite, has the contract worth tens of millions of dollars to train an Iraqi police force. It also won the contracts to train the Bosnian police and was implicated in a grim sex slavery scandal, with its employees accused of rape and the buying and selling of girls as young as 12. A number of employees were fired, but never prosecuted. The only court cases to result involved the two whistleblowers who exposed the episode and were sacked.
“Dyncorp should never have been awarded the Iraqi police contract,” said Madeleine Rees, the chief UN human rights officer in Sarajevo.
Of the two court cases, one US police officer working for Dyncorp in Bosnia, Kathryn Bolkovac, won her suit for wrongful dismissal. The other involving a mechanic, Ben Johnston, was settled out of court. Mr Johnston’s suit against Dyncorp charged that he “witnessed co-workers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.”
RevDeb, I sound more Texan in Texas and positively NY when in NY. Just happens.
He has Charles, Bernard, Lou, Tony Powell and Karith Foster (both African Americans). Bernard has been especially muted. For me it’s what the show should have been. I would often cringe at the childish (and yes, racist and sexist) bullshit and then marvel at his interviews. For some people that is not enough and I am not really interested in another round of arguing about it. No one makes anyone listen.
I used to start talking with a NY accent whenever I went back to visit my cousins, so I keep an open mind to the power of suggestion.
Did you see “The Color Purple”?
Valley Girl and Hugh, I refer to that list often. It’s great to have the dates, because who could possibly remember when the fuckery occured in relation to the other fuckery without THE LIST?
Thanks, big-time, Hugh!
oops, The Color Purple. Second call for edit!!!!
Betsy,
So do I. Anyone with an ear for accent or languages (or maybe just music?) is going to mimic the sounds around him or her.
Charles does the news, plus Imus has two new on-camera sidekicks, an African-American Jewish Texas woman comic with a nicely dry humor I like [must be a friend of Kinky’s]. And an African-American sports announcer. Bernie [show booker/producer] and Lou are not on-camera, but they’re part of the team.
I do think Imus is living up to his pledge to the Rutgers women. The show’s more subdued, but seeing the guests thus far, and with Col. Jacobs appearing tomorrow and the promise of discussion of the deplorable lack of progress on veterans’ health issues, and historians like Beschloss and Goodwin…well, I think it’s worth watching.
American soldiers either.
My favorite actually is the campfire cooking!! That is something I think is so cool. I love camping, and when they have the cast iron cooking deals, that is fun for me. I also am a “horsey” person, so some of the training shows are sometimes interesting.
Now, I thought that Imus wants to be a rancher…yeah…but the reality is that it is all about stuff the regular people tune out…I guess it will ultimately bring higher end advertising to RFTD and they’ll do better…I dunno…The problem is that there is 10 minutes of advertising for hefers and 5 minutes of the show….
Actually, Imus ticks me off anyway…I really don’t care what he thinks…he’s “over”…
Aren’t you glad there is an off switch?
You are welcome. Much credit goes to selise who hosts the site for me and puts up with all my updates and changes.
Well, good, that is actually what he’s best at. Keeping Bernard off camera is the best thing they can do. He spewed a lot of the hate speech. I used to turn it off the second I saw Bernard. I didn’t like that friend of his either, but I can’t remember his name. Maybe you’ll remember him when I say that he’s the one that couldn’t last a minute without the F word.
Selise is a national treasure too.
That was me. It was the Army, I can;t help it. :)
Thanks, nice to know someone reads what I write. It is sometimes like people don’t remember what Vietnam did to this country. Somehow I was able to deal with all that because I lived with the illusion that we had learned something about War. We didn’t.
Maybe Alberto Gonzalez agreed with that guy who ran against Ann Richards for Governor before Bush. Williams, I think was his name. That might the Texas Republican Party attitude.
So true. Sadly, many in the public–liberal and conservative alike–believe that if a woman is attractive then she is somehow deserving of sadistic torture as if that’s a state crime that jeopardizes our very existence. It’s the misogynistic version of the old “gay panic” defense in gay bashings. Yet, even if a woman wasn’t attractive they’d find an excuse to justify rape in a culture that grants them immunity.
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 multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone raped her, 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. […]
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. […]
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones’ camp, where they rescued her from the container.
According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by “several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally.”
Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped “both vaginally and anally,” but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers. […]
Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case. […]
Congressman Poe says neither the departments of State nor Justice will give him answers on the status of the Jones investigation. […]”But I think it is the responsibility of our government, the Justice Department and the State Department, when crimes occur against American citizens overseas in Iraq, contractors that are paid by the American public, that we pursue the criminal cases as best as we possibly can and that people are prosecuted.”
Since no criminal charges have been filed, the only other option, according to Hutson, is the civil system, which is the approach that Jones is trying now. But Jones’ former employer doesn’t want this case to see the inside of a civil courtroom.
KBR has moved for Jones’ claim to be heard in private arbitration, instead of a public courtroom. It says her employment contract requires it.
In arbitration, there is no public record nor transcript of the proceedings, meaning that Jones’ claims would not be heard before a judge and jury. Rather, a private arbitrator would decide Jones’ case. In recent testimony before Congress, employment lawyer Cathy Ventrell-Monsees said that Halliburton won more than 80 percent of arbitration proceedings brought against it.
In a statement, KBR said it was “instructed to cease” its own investigation by U.S. government authorities “because they were assuming sole responsibility for the criminal investigations.”
“The safety and security of all employees remains KBR’s top priority,” it said in a statement. “Our commitment in this regard is unwavering.”
Since the attacks, Jones has started a nonprofit foundation called the Jamie Leigh Foundation, which is dedicated to helping victims who were raped or sexually assaulted overseas while working for government contractors or other corporations.
“I want other women to know that it’s not their fault,” said Jones. “They can go against corporations that have treated them this way.” Jones said that any proceeds from the civil suit will go to her foundation.