Re: President Bush Vetoes SCHIP Bill, Just FYI.

That's what veto overides are for. Every business Poppy bought for Daddy was

run into the ground by Georgie. Everything eaten, worn, and including all

medical care for the still very promiscuous twins was paid for by Poppy's

oil.

October 3, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Sinking in a Swamp Full of Blackwater

By MAUREEN DOWD

Washington

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a

monster," Nietzsche said. "And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss

gazes also into you."

We're gazing into the abyss all right, and Blackwater is gazing back.

Besides having an army for hire, brave kids who are paid to fight so that

most Americans are not personally touched by war, we have the real

mercenaries. And they're a spooky cadre, careening outside the laws of Iraq,

the United States and the military.

President Bush continues to preach that we must defeat the "dark ideology"

of extremists with "a more hopeful vision."

But the compromises W. makes to slog on in Iraq, be it with warlords,

dictators or out-of-control contractors, are spreading a dark stain on

America's image.

"Blackwater appears to have fostered a culture of shoot first and sometimes

kill, and then ask the questions," said Representative Elijah Cummings, a

Democrat, yesterday at a House hearing.

The Times reports today that Blackwater's explanation of an incident in

Baghdad on Sept. 16 that left 17 dead and 24 wounded is sketchy.

It seems as though a bullet struck an Iraqi man driving his mother to pick

up his father, a pathologist, at the hospital. The dead man's weight, The

Times reports, "probably remained on the accelerator and propelled the car

forward" toward a Blackwater convoy.

Blackwater guards then unleashed a spray of gunfire and explosives, even

though witnesses did not see anyone shooting at the American convoy and even

though Iraqis were turning their cars around and escaping the scene.

Newsweek quotes the Iraqi national police as saying that Blackwater vehicles

"opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason."

The Blackwater desperados are a sinister symbol of how little progress we've

made in Iraq, that V.I.P.'s - or "packages," as the contractors call them -

can't make a move in the country without the high-priced hired guns of the

State Department.

Americans have been antimercenary since the British sent 30,000 German

Hessians after George Washington in the Revolutionary War.

But W. outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy

went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks of the Iraq occupation

to Halliburton and Blackwater. The American taxpayer got gouged, and so did

the American reputation.

The mercenaries inflame Iraqis even as Gen. David Petraeus tries to win

their trust.

Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform

Committee, summoned the 38-year-old crew-cut chairman of Blackwater, Erik

Prince, to defend his private security company yesterday.

Once there was the military-industrial complex. Now we have the

mercenary-evangelical complex.

Mr. Prince, a former intern to the first President Bush and a former Navy

Seal, is from a well-to-do and well-connected Republican family from

Michigan.

He and his father both have close ties to conservative Christian groups. His

sister was a Pioneer for W., raising $100,000 in 2004, and Erik Prince has

given more than $225,000 to Republicans.

Blackwater, in turn, has been the beneficiary of $1 billion in federal

contracts, including a no-bid contract with the State Department worth

hundreds of millions.

Mr. Waxman yesterday called the State Department "Blackwater's enabler." His

committee staff summarized State Department reports revealing a cascade of

Blackwater trouble.

"In a high-profile incident in December 2006, a drunken Blackwater

contractor killed the guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi. Within

36 hours after the shooting, the State Department had allowed Blackwater to

transport the Blackwater contractor out of Iraq."

The State Department chargé d'affaires "suggested a $250,000 payment to the

guard's family, but the Department's Diplomatic Security Service said this

was too much and could cause Iraqis to 'try to get killed.' " In the end,

they agreed on a $15,000 payment.

"The State Department took a similar approach," the report stated, "upon

receiving reports that Blackwater shooters killed an innocent Iraqi, except

that in this case, the State Department requested only a $5,000 payment to

'put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly.' "

Mr. Prince was pressed by Representative Paul Hodes about the penalty paid

by the Blackwater employee who, while drunk and off-duty at a Christmas

party, killed the Iraqi guard.

The man was fired. And he had to pay his own airfare home and forfeit his

bonuses, amounting to a loss of about $14,697 - slightly less than the

amount paid to the family of the Iraqi he blew away.

October 3, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Et Tu, Toyota?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

What is it about Michigan that seems to encourage assisted suicide?

That is all I can think watching Michigan congressmen and senators, led by

Representative John Dingell, doing their best imitations of Jack Kevorkian

and once again trying to water down efforts by Congress to legislate

improved mileage standards for Detroit in the latest draft energy bill.

Look, I get pork-barrel politics. I understand senators from oil states

protecting the windfall profits of oil companies. Ditto for farm subsidies.

It's an old story: Protect my winnings, and I'll reward you with campaign

contributions. I get it. I get it.

What I don't get is empty-barrel politics - Michigan lawmakers year after

year shielding Detroit from pressure to innovate on higher mileage

standards, even though Detroit's failure to sell more energy-efficient

vehicles has clearly contributed to its brush with bankruptcy, its loss of

market share to Toyota and Honda - whose fleets beat all U.S. automakers in

fuel economy in 2007 - and its loss of jobs. G.M. today has 73,000 working

U.A.W. members, compared with 225,000 a decade ago. Last year, Toyota

overtook G.M. as the world's biggest automaker.

Thank you, Michigan delegation! The people of Japan thank you as well.

But assisting Detroit's suicide seems to be contagious. Everyone wants to

get in on it, including Toyota. Toyota, which pioneered the

industry-leading, 50-miles-per-gallon Prius hybrid, has joined with the Big

Three U.S. automakers in lobbying against the tougher mileage standards in

the Senate version of the draft energy bill.

Now why would Toyota, which has used the Prius to brand itself as the

greenest car company, pull such a stunt? Is it because Toyota wants to slow

down innovation in Detroit on more energy efficient vehicles, which Toyota

already dominates, while also keeping mileage room to build giant pickup

trucks, like the Toyota Tundra, at the gas-guzzler end of the U.S. market?

"Toyota wants to keep its green halo and beat G.M. in the big trucks, too,"

said Deron Lovaas, vehicles expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"As the world's largest automaker and inventor of the best-selling hybrid

car, Toyota has a responsibility to lead, follow or get out of the way as

Congress debates the first substantial fuel-economy boost in decades.

Shamefully, Toyota has joined forces with older automakers that are getting

their lunch handed to them in the marketplace, in part because they've

consistently shunned fuel efficiency."

Irv Miller, a Toyota vice president, used the company's corporate blog to

refute charges that it is "trying to move America backward on gas mileage."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," he said, because Toyota also

favors improved mileage standards.

Not so fast. Here are the facts: Thanks to the Michigan delegation, U.S.

mileage standards for passenger car fleets have been frozen at 27.5 miles

per gallon since 1985. Light trucks are even worse. The Senate energy bill

calls for U.S. automakers to achieve a corporate average fuel economy of 35

m.p.g. by 2020. The Big Three and Toyota are lobbying to kill the Senate

version and replace it with a loophole-laden increase to 32 to 35 m.p.g. by

2022. (Only the U.S. auto industry would try to postpone innovation.) The

difference between the two is millions of gallons of gas.

Don't be fooled. Japan and Europe already have much better mileage standards

for their auto fleets than the U.S. They both have many vehicles that could

meet the U.S. goal for 2020 today, and they are committed to increasing

their fleet standards toward 40 m.p.g. and above in the coming decade. So

Toyota, in effect, is lobbying to keep U.S. standards - in 2022 - well

behind what Japan's will be.

Representative Edward Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House

Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said to me that

Toyota could meet a 35 m.p.g. standard in Japan and Europe today, "but

here - even though they bombard Americans with ads about how energy

efficient Toyota is - they are fighting the 35 m.p.g. standard for 2020."

Mr. Markey said he has tried to persuade Toyota that "a lot of people have

bought Priuses or Camry hybrids to fight global warming and reduce our

dependence on foreign oil" and "they would be shocked to find out" that

Toyota is lobbying against the highest m.p.g. standards for America.

Sad. If Toyota were to take the lead on this front, it could enhance its own

reputation and spur the whole U.S. auto industry to become more globally

competitive. Hey, Toyota, if you are going to become the biggest U.S.

automaker, could you at least bring to America your best practices - the

ones that made you the world leader - instead of prolonging our worst

practices? We have enough people helping us commit suicide.

CH

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> ANN: President Bush Vetoes SCHIP Bill, Just FYI.

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