Truthout - All Articles

BREAKING: Oil Slick Reported at Burning Platform in the Gulf

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:40:40 -0400

Update 4:48 pm Eastern:

A trail of oil at least a mile long has been reported near an oil and gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded and caught fire Thursday morning. Hurricane Ike damaged the platform last year.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Matthew Masaschi told Truthout that Mariner Energy, the firm that owns the platform, reported a sheen of oil about one mile long and 100 feet wide coming from the still burning platform, but the Coast Guard has not confirmed the sighting.

Billion Dollar Audit Missed by Pentagon Watchdog

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:52:18 -0400

Washington - Military auditors failed to complete an audit of the business systems of an Ohio- based company - Mission Essential Personnel - even though it had billed for one billion dollars worth of work largely in Afghanistan over the last four years.

In September 2007 the U.S. Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) awarded Mission Essential Personnel (MEP) a five-year-contract worth up to 414 million dollars to provide 1,691 translators in Afghanistan. MEP was a start-up company created by three men, including Chad Monnin, a U.S. Army Special Forces reservist who was injured in a parachute accident.

Beck's "Apolitical" Black Robe Regiment Will Urge Voter Involvement

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:46:59 -0400

Glenn Beck's newly created Black Robe Regiment -- which he has said would be apolitical -- apparently has a clear political direction, according to two of its members.

Dr. Richard Lee of the First Redeemer Church in Atlanta, Ga., and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, both said part of the group's mission is to return to their places of worship and boost voter involvement.

US-Venezuela Links Teeter on the Brink, Dragging a Prudent Foreign Policy With It

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:32:06 -0400

Since Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, Caracas has maintained a testy relationship with the United States, a nation which Chávez views as the primary threat to his dream of reproducing the Bolivarian Revolution. Although the U.S. and Venezuela experienced a very brief honeymoon once President Barack Obama assumed office, the two countries’ relationship has quickly begun to sour. Responding in kind, Chávez has vamped up his anti-imperialist rhetoric in recent months, repeatedly taking stabs at the U.S.

EPA Results Show Contaminated Water in Wyoming Fracking Zone

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:02:15 -0400

Government scientists have found that private water walls in Pavillion, Wyo. are polluted with toxic chemicals used in the controversial gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — and residents have been told not to drink from them.

The findings offer the latest evidence that the fast-spreading gas-extraction method could be endangering public health.

The Human Cost of Government Waste and Fraud

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:37:56 -0400

There is something missing in the constant political argument about the size of the federal government. Most of the American public want federal programs when needed for disasters, national defense, medical research and the Medicare and Social Security safety net. What the public has said in many polls is that they want not big or smaller government, but effective government. And there is a whole group of good government groups in Washington that work diligently on exposing government fraud and waste and trying to fix it.

One of these organizations, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), has been exposing fraud and waste for almost 30 years.

Lost in Stagnation: Japan's Dismal Tale

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:21:42 -0400

Japan’s lost decades may have changed its society for the worse.

Twenty years of struggling with stagnation have left a mark, reports economics writer Charles Hugh Smith in an online article for AOL Daily Finance. He argues that the “consequences for the ‘lost generations’ that have come of age in the ‘lost decades’ have been dire.”

“In many ways, Japan’s social conventions are fraying under the relentless pressure of an economy in seemingly permanent decline,”

Defense Contractor Money Fueling Push to Militarize the US-Mexico Border

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:53:38 -0400

After months of prodding from anti-immigration politicians, the entire US-Mexico border is now being watched by the Predator B unmanned surveillance aircraft commonly known as Predator drones. The news may comfort residents of border states where the details of Mexico's brutal drug war continue to make headlines, but here's some more comforting news: violent crime in US border states has decreased during the past decade, and some big border cities are the safest in the nation.

Trying to Be Hopeful About Peace

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:52:19 -0400

A few years back when Washington was preparing for the then highly- touted Annapolis Peace Conference, I remember commenting that I was "hopeful, but not optimistic." As we approach the latest incarnation of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, I'm even finding it difficult to be hopeful, though I will continue try to be supportive recognizing, as I do, the consequences of failure.

Convening these talks at this time is certainly a gutsy move for President Barack Obama.

Robert Naiman | Iraq/Afghanistan: A Promise Kept, a Promise Deferred

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:06:28 -0400

President Obama wants credit for keeping his promise to end the war in Iraq. Some credit is due: the president reaffirmed his commitment to withdraw all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, as required by the agreement between the US and Iraq. But only partial credit is due, because the war-ending task is very far from complete.