Quick activist alert: 12 Tennessee citizens are in the 11th day of a sit-in at Gov. Bredesen's (D) office in Nashville. They have been joined by 50 or more demonstrators outside, protesting Bredesen's proposed deep cuts in the TennCare health system -- almost a third of a million people kicked off the rolls.

Here's their statement of demands:

WHAT WE WANT

We are here in the Governor�s Office, as afforded by the Constitution of Tennessee to assemble peaceably, to instruct the governor. We call on the Governor to:

1. Halt all of the termination letters immediately, the process for cutting enrollment, and the reduction of benefit limits.

2. Provide written agreement to resume talks before June 30th, to review reforms and revenue generation that could allow TennCare to be maintained for those who are proposed to be cut and receive benefit limits.

a. That these talks happen in manner fully accessible to the public.

b. That they engage enrollees and medical professionals chosen from and with in this participating group.

"We will stay as long as necessary," said Louis Patrick from the Governor's Office, "absolutely, no doubt, we are staying."

A great site for following the sit-in, including a day-by-day report, is the Memphis Center for Independent Living, a group representing citizens with disabilities who would be severely affected by the cuts.

More later ...

(Thanks to reader LK in South Carolina for the tip)

The move by GOP leaders to slash Amtrak's train routes that we warned about have apparently been derailed:

The House, ignoring President Bush and the Republican leadership, voted Wednesday to reject planned slashes in Amtrak's budget that could have led to major service reductions, including the end of numerous long-distance train routes.

It was Republicans who led the fight to restore funding, with Democrats providing backup. My guess is that they heard from constituents about it, as well as leaders in towns like Meridian, Mississippi that benefit from being tied-in with public transport.

Many pundits –- especially on the political right -– are incensed about the Supreme Court’s recent verdict in Kelo v. City of New London, which backed the Connecticut town's use of eminent domain to take (with compensation) a woman’s house for economic development.

Whatever one thinks about the court’s decision, let’s be clear: “confiscation” of people’s property is hardly new. Any Native American can tell you that. Nathan Newman points to renters, as opposed to home owners, who are routinely evicted from their homes at the whims of developers. In many of the "corporate recruitment" deals in the South and beyond, state and local governments muscle private landowners out of their property -- publicly and privately -- to clear the way for incoming businesses.

So let's not pretend Kelo is an earth-shattering decision reversing years of policy sticking up for little folks.

What's even more troubling is absence of any discussion about the rampant "seizure" of assets that belong to the public:

• Every day, the public’s air is “confiscated” by big polluters, who destroy the value of this common resource with toxic emissions – causing untold harm to public health and our environment;
• The media airwaves, which by law belong to each and every American, have been “seized” by a handful of conglomerates that routinely flout public oversight;
• Dozens of community institutions – hospitals, school programs, services for low-income citizens – are being privatized and handed over to corporations whose top priority is often making money, not serving the common good.
• Our national forests – a treasure owned by all of us – are being cut, logged and sold off to powerful timber interests for a fraction of their fair market value.

This is our property – common assets that all of us own, but which in one way or another are being taken away, often without our consent and usually without fair compensation.

Where are the Kelo critics in defending the public’s property?

In what could become a landmark case, the state of Tennessee is going to federal court today seeking approval to cut back on coverage offered by the state-paid TennCare health program.

Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) says the cut-backs will save the state some $100 million, enough to save 97,000 low-income enrollees from getting moved off the rolls entirely (which would reduce the number forced off TennCare under Bredesen's plan from 320,000 to 226,000).

The court will hear whether Bredesen's plan -- which include limiting drug prescriptions, restricting appeals by enrollees, and allowing TennCare officials to decide which procedures are "medically necessary" -- violate the TennCare law. The AARP, Children's Defense Fund, and Tennesse Justice Center all think so, and also think it will be a disaster for citizens using TennCare:

The state's attempt to redefine medical necessity, for example, is "putting a gag on doctors and they're kicking the doctors out of the role of decision-maker in what health-care enrollees get," said Michele Johnson, Tennessee Justice Center co-founder. Her organization has long said doctors should practice cost-effective medicine, "but this replaces the doctors with HMO bean counters."

Largely left out of the debate is why TennCare is cash-strapped in the first place. Health costs are surely going up, but a report by the Memphis Commercial Appeal and Chattanooga Times Free Press in January 2005 found that 9,617 of those using TennCare for health coverage are employees of Wal-Mart.

Fully 25% of Wal-Mart employees in Tennessee make wages so low -- and are unable to secure other health insurance -- that they depend on TennCare for coverage. Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer.

Instead of stripping away health coverage for a quarter million people and families, maybe Tennessee could take a page from the Maryland legislature and its bill -- unfortunately sabatoged by Gov. Ehrlich and other corporate-backed politicians -- that called on big employers like Wal-Mart to spend at least 8% of their revenues on providing health coverage.

Other states are watching closely to see which way the case will go. Unfortunately, Gov. Bredesen is taking Tennessee health policy in the wrong direction.

Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC), who was picked to accompany President Bush at Fort Bragg yesterday -- instead of the shunned colleage Rep. Walter Jones, whose district is closer -- is now claiming to have special knowledge about Iraq and Al Quaeda that has eluded the rest of the world:

President Bush might continue to intimate that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and the September 11th attacks, but Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC), the vice chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism, is stating it explicitly. In an interview on CNN, Hayes insisted, “Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11.” When confronted with the findings of the 9/11 commission — who definitively concluded there was no evidence of a link between Saddam and 9/11 — Hayes retorted, “I’m sorry, but you must have looked in the wrong places.” Hayes then defended his position by asserting that “legislators have access to evidence others do not.”

We’re not sure what kind of evidence Hayes has access to but apparently he has higher clearance than U.S. weapons inspectors, CIA directors, counterterrorism experts, Secretaries of State, and even the President … because all those people have accepted the fact that Saddam was not connected to 9/11.

(Via Think Progress)

Bush's "major policy address" on Iraq may have taken place in Fort Bragg's Ritz-Epps Sports Complex, but it had little to do with the 700 soldiers assembled there. They were just the backdrop, stage props for a speech aimed squarely at the TV-watching masses and their growing doubts about the Iraq war.

Even the backdrop wasn't real: as the Fayetteville Observer reports: "All of the scenery behind the podium -- including the large Fort Bragg sign with the Army seal directly behind the president -- was provided by a contractor hired by the White House, a Fort Bragg official said."

All of which raises a question: why is it that when 4,000 peace protesters demonstrated at Fort Bragg last March, their acts were reviled as treasonous and insulting to the troops -- but when a political leader shamelessly exploits soldiers in a fabricated photo-op to further their political ambitions, that's ok?

By all accounts, the soldiers didn't play along, and seemed aware that the time for empty cheerleading (remember "Mission Accomplished?") had long passed. The Observer notes that the soldiers "remained reverently silent" during almost all of the 30-minute speech.

(And even the one burst of applause was forced: according to AmericaBlog, "ABC's Terry Moran just reported that the only time Bush got applause was in the middle of his speech when a White House advance team member started clapping all on their own in order to cajole the soldiers into clapping, which they dutifully did.")

Also absent was any reference to the surrounding Fayetteville community. "The city was nonexistant in the live telecast," observes local reporter Michael Futch. "The post itself rated little more than a mention as the venue for the talk."

Given that a recent poll found 44% of Fayetteville residents think the Iraq war "wasn't worth it" -- a staggering figure in a town where 70% of the community has military ties -- maybe Bush thought it was best to leave them out of the picture.

A few other Fort Bragg Photo-Op odds and ends:

• Bush flew in N.C. Reps Robin Hayes and Mike McIntyre to accompany him during the address. Air Force One, however, apparently forgot to pick up fellow GOP Representative Walter Jones.


• 14,700 Fort Bragg troops are currently deployed -- including 9,300 in Iraq and 1,550 in Afghanistan.


• NPR's coverage of the event was refreshing -- a dispatch from WUNC's Rusty Jacobs for NPR national focused on growing opposition to the war in North Carolina, and the 50-some demonstrators who assembled to protest Bush.


• Not so good: the dreaded Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press, whose dispatch on Bush's use of 9/11 imagery is a typically convoluted mess. By the second paragraph, the piece is already sliding into total disarray: "Democrats in particular criticized Bush for again raising the Sept. 11 attacks as a justification for the protracted fight in Iraq after the president proclaimed anew that he plans to keep U.S. forces there as long as necessary to ensure peace." And those two points have what to do with each other?

As I write, President Bush is likely preparing for his fly-in photo-op to shore up support for the Iraq war which will be held at Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne and other units heavily deployed overseas.

North Carolina may call itself "the most military-friendly state," but today's News & Observer shows there's trouble on the homefront:

More North Carolinians are questioning whether the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, a poll shows, just as President Bush plans a prime-time visit to Fort Bragg today to rally support for his Iraq policies.

The statewide survey, conducted over the weekend for The News & Observer and WRAL-TV, found that 42 percent of active voters agree the war has been worth it, but 49 percent say it has not.

That's a sharp erosion in support for the war since January 2004 ... Back then, the survey showed that 58 percent of Tar Heel voters said the war was worthwhile.

North Carolinians also remain almost "evenly divided" on whether or not to set a timetable for bringing the troops home. These findings may surprise many, but not if taken in the context of what the state has suffered as a result of the war.

Today, the Institute for Southern Studies released a short report on the state's disproportionate loss from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's a press release with the key details:

For Immediate Release: June 28, 2005

NORTH CAROLINA SHOULDERS LARGER SHARE OF WAR BURDEN

DURHAM, N.C. – As President George W. Bush prepares to issue an address in Fort Bragg, N.C. tonight to shore up flagging public support for the Iraq war, a new analysis by the Institute for Southern Studies finds that North Carolina is shouldering a disproportionate burden of the war’s costs in fallen troops.

“North Carolina takes pride in being the country’s ‘most military-friendly state,’” said Chris Kromm, director of the non-profit, non-partisan Institute. “Unfortunately, our analysis shows that soldiers deploying from North Carolina – as well as their families and military communities – have paid dearly for the association.” Among the findings drawn from news reports and Department of Defense data:

* Of the over 1,930 U.S. troops that have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 230 have been based in North Carolina – over 12% of the nation's war fatalities, or nearly one out of eight U.S. soldiers killed overseas.

* Over 100 Army soldiers and 120 Marines from North Carolina bases have died in the two conflicts. Thirty-five of the troops that have died in Iraq were born in North Carolina.

* Over 2,200 of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, based at Fort Bragg, are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The division has seen over 40 soldiers killed and 450 injured in the two wars.

* North Carolina has sent one of the largest detachments of National Guard troops to Iraq: deployment peaked at 6,000 in January 2005, the largest mobilization for the state since World War II. With the recent return of the National Guard’s 30th Heavy Separate Brigade, the deployment now stands at 2,700.

* The North Carolina presence in Iraq will remain significant for the foreseeable future: The Pentagon recently announced that 7,500 to 8,000 members of Fort Bragg’s 18th Airborne Corps will be deployed early next year to take over day-to-day operations in Iraq. They will replace the 3rd Corps from Fort Hood, Texas in directing the Multinational Corps-Iraq. In addition, part of the 82nd Airborne’s 2nd Brigade is slated to deploy to Afghanistan in May.

North Carolina’s close military ties reflect a pattern seen throughout the Southern U.S. A 2002 study by the Institute for Southern Studies found that 42% of U.S. troops were born in 13 Southern states, and 56% were housed at military bases in the region.

This has led North Carolina and the South to be disproportionately dependent on a military presence. A Military Impact Study conducted by East Carolina University in 2004 found that over 333,300 jobs are tied directly to the military, and four percent of the population is here because of the military presence in the state. The military has an $18 billion economic impact on the state – over 6% of the state’s gross product.

The military’s driving role in North Carolina politics and economics is unlikely to change anytime soon. The Pentagon’s proposed base closure and re-alignment plan announced this May, while including changes at several N.C. bases, would have little net effect on the state’s military stature. The plan calls for an expansion of 4,325 personnel at Fort Bragg, which is balanced by a recommendation to cut 4,145 positions at Pope Air Force Base.

“When the Pentagon announced in May that it planned to close some 180 installations, the story nationwide was one of gloom and doom,” says Kromm. “But the South’s role as a military stronghold will continue -- and in many states, it will grow."

An Institute analysis of the base realignment plan in May 2005 found that 13 Southern states stand to gain over 15,000 base personnel under the proposal, and five of the 10 states whose military presence will grow the most under the plan are located in the South.

From South Knox Bubba:

A federal appeals court has upheld some of Bush's changes to the EPA's “new source review” regulations that will allow industrial polluters, including power plants, to upgrade and expand their operations without updating existing pollution controls. Industry officials are elated.

In the same ruling, the court told the EPA to go back and work on a rule that allows polluters to not maintain records of their pollution if they think it doesn't exceed regulatory limits. In other words, polluters can continue regulating themselves, the EPA just needs to make sure the rule at least appears to pass the “snicker test.”

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Valley and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are on day two of an unhealthy ozone level and particulate matter alert.

Check out his photos comparing clear and smoggy weather in the mountains.

Gov. Jeb Bush has vetoed three bills designed to check the governor’s power to hand out multi-million-dollar contracts for state government work. The bills were passed nearly unanimously in the Republican-dominated legislature, raising the possibility that the legislature could vote to override Bush’s veto.

From the Miami Herald:

“The process we have in place does not safeguard taxpayer dollars, and they are hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” Argenziano said. “I'm not against privatization. I just think it needs accountability and it needs to be real. After all, we [the Legislature] write the checks.”

The Hillsborough County (Fla.) commission recently voted “not to acknowledge, promote or participate in gay pride events.” Right after the July 15 vote, two gay literature displays in the Tampa public library were taken down (a similar display at another library was taken down before the vote).

So yesterday about 5,000 people gathered in Tampa for a “Pride Is Back” march. Marchers didn’t have a permit, but 10 Tampa police officers, several of them gay or lesbian, volunteered to help out with the event, cordoning off a route and directing traffic. “Tampa police support all the residents of the city,” the department’s liaison with the gay community told the Tampa Tribune.

Commissioner Ronda Storms pushed the proposal and got it passed with only one dissenting vote. From the Tribune:

“You can respect somebody’s human dignity and treat them with courtesy, but I'm still not going to promote what you do,” Storms said last week.

Among the marchers was at least one who wanted to thank the commissioners who voted against supporting gay pride.

“The best thing that ever happened to us was Ronda Storms,” a man who identified himself as R. Zeke Fread said as he waved a rainbow flag. “She got us all together.”

Courtesy of the Texas Observer:

“I’ve already yielded more than a cheerleader at a drive-in.”
—Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) on the Senate floor.

“I can’t define yours for you or you define mine for me. I don’t have a word-for-word description of it, but any adult who is involved with sex at all in their life—they know it when they see it. I can’t give you a demonstration this evening.”
—Rep. Al Edwards (D-Houston) on which sexually suggestive moves his sexy cheerleader bill would outlaw.

“I’m not sure we’d want one,”
replied Rep. Kent Grusendorf (R-Arlington).

“It’s a learned behavior. It’s kind of like domestic violence or someone who drinks. There was someone in the family or close to the family who caused that.”
—Rep. Robert Talton (R-Pasadena) on homosexuality.

“The bottom line is we’re talking about murdering a perfectly viable functioning person. I don’t think the risk of damage to a vital organ [of the mother] justifies reaching that level.”
—Rep. Will Hartnett (D-Dallas) during a floor debate on whether to restrict certain late term abortions.

“Every time I get stopped they want to search my vehicle.”
—Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen) on the need for consent searches to stop harassment of people who look like him.

“We are using fingerprints, face prints, pretty soon we are going to be using butt prints.”
—Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) on the passage of a law that forces all Texans to give biometric information to the Department of Public Safety in order to get a drivers’ license.

“This bill allows for demographically challenged people to get a voucher, to get a scholarship out of a low-performing public school.”
—Rep. Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands) championing vouchers.

“I take offense when people associate me and my race and my culture with a social ill. I don’t see how the two relate to each other. I just wanted to make that clear.”
—Rep. Al Edwards (D-Houston) outraged at a comparison of discrimination based on race with discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“In a contest of wills, the House has an iron will, and the Senate ranges anywhere from frozen butter to melted butter. But it’s still butter.”
—Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) as quoted in The Dallas Morning News.

“What I have going on personally doesn’t have a m-----f------ thing to do with nothing. If that’s what you are after, f--- you.”
—Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) responding to a reporter’s impertinent question.

“Can you imagine the kind of B.S. we’d be passing without them?”
—Rep. Kino Flores (D-Mission), as quoted in The Dallas Morning News on why lobbyists are important.

Everyone has heard about Philadelphia, Mississippi, site of the 1964 killings of civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, but most of the suspects (including the triggerman, Wayne Roberts) were from Meridian, a town with its own troubled racial history.

One hundred years ago today in the city of Chicago, Eugene Debs, "Big Bill" Haywood, and other union leaders launched one of the most dynamic and radical efforts to organize workers in our country's history -- the Industrial Workers of the World, later dubbed "The Wobblies." Their goal, as stated at the first convention: forming "One Big Union" that could lead to "the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism."

The rest, as they say, is history, and it's a fascinating tale. For those curious about the Southern angle, check out this post I wrote up in May. The IWW is mostly known for their agitation in the Midwest and West, but as historian Philip Foner argued, their successful organizing of lumber workers in the South is one of the IWW's most "interesting and inspiring chapters." (One small example: in De Ridder -- the thriving center of the Louisiana timber industry -- they elected a Socialist mayor in 1912!).

Stories like these are a useful corrective to those who view the South's history as one marked by a never-changing and monolithic conservatism. The Southern IWW timber union, which at its peak in 1912 had over 25,000 members -- half African-American -- is another example of the region's rich progressive history.

Fast forward to today for another Southern tie-in: Wade Rathke, a long-time Southern organizer and now Chief Organizer for the grassroots organizing group ACORN (founded in Arkansas, now national), has put forward an interesting proposal to revive the U.S. labor movement. His idea: create a mass-based American Workers Association that would cut through the jurisdictional and other limitations of current unions.

Sounds a lot like the IWW's "One Big Union" to me.

[Ed. Note: It's that time of the week again -- time for more Friday Film Blogging from the Independent Weekly's David Fellerath.]

I think one sign of a war’s maturity is when it starts to be a setting for movies. There’s no end in sight to the Iraq War, but our historical moment is beginning to be memorialized in fiction, on stage and in movie theaters. Most of the movies so far have been documentaries, but leave it to the Danes to make the first fiction I’ve seen that uses the war in Afghanistan as a backdrop.

The movie is called Brothers. It’s been playing for a few weeks in the largest cities and is now entering second-tier markets such as the NC Triangle. My Indy review is here.

Brothers is a good, but not great, film that ultimately becomes a somewhat conventional domestic melodrama. I don’t know when Hollywood plans to acknowledge the events of 9/11 (beyond scrupulously avoiding old stock footage of the Twin Towers) in a serious way, but in Brothers, the correlation between global engagement and domestic crisis is made very clear. The world is different now and an ordinary Danish family can’t avoid its effects. On its own terms, Brothers is an affecting movie. On Hollywood’s terms, it’s a bold, unprecedented movie.

Brothers bears some resemblance to the weary disillusionment shown in the 1978 flick Coming Home, which starred Jon Voight and Jane Fonda (who seems to be more widely reviled by the right-wing today than ever before). While it’s no surprise that the Vietnam war spawned downbeat movies (as our Iraq folly no doubt will), what is surprising is the downbeat tone of the best post-World War II movies.

I’m thinking specifically of two: They Were Expendable and The Best Years of Our Lives. The former was John Ford’s tale of the strategic retreat from the Philippines, told from the point of view of the rear guard – many of whom would be abandoned to the Japanese. It’s heroism but heroism of the doomed, Hemingway-esque kind. It goes without saying that no such movie would be made today, about either WWII or the Iraq War, and, contrary to our present-day expectations, this realistic, melancholy and non-triumphalist movie was a commercial hit upon its 1945 release.

William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives bears more resemblance to Brothers in that it focuses on the home front, and the efforts of three young servicemen to readjust to post-war civilian life. Again, today’s popular image of the post-war moment is of sailors kissing girls in Times Square on V-E day and then going off to the suburbs to create a great economic boom and a boom generation of babies. But The Best Years of Our Lives, released in 1946, took an honest look at the realities of what was not yet known as PTSD and clinical depression. It was also a commercial and critical hit, winning seven Academy awards.

Both They Were Expendable and The Best Years of Our Lives are available on DVD.

Fresh off the anti-war awakening of Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), another North State Republican has given progressive bloggers something to chatter about. The Lincoln Tribune reports via Raw Story:

CARY -- A candidate for North Carolina Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court has announced on her campaign's blog that she is leaving the Republican Party and denounced the Bush administration's policy on troop withdrawal from Iraq. Rachel Lea Hunter, a Republican and a candidate for Chief Justice, likens Bush’s administration to the “Nazis” and says that all who disagree with the administration are being branded as “traitors”.

Incidentally, Hunter sees a direct line between attacks against her and the GOP uproar against Jones. As she writes on her blog,

Republican dirty tricks are not confined to just me any more. I also saw that Congressman Jones made the news by calling for a withdrawal of our troops. Whatever one may think about the war, one should ask when the mission will be over and when the troops can come home. Are we going to stay indefinitely? While it is nice that we are building Iraq, what about America? And what about the cost? Why do the Americans have to foot the bill when we can ill afford it? These are all legitimate questions to ask.

She also has a clear perspective on where the crackdown on dissent within the GOP fits in the history of recent political scandals:

[W]hat I find disturbing is that we are criticized for nothing more than the exercise of our constitutional rights. those who disagree with any aspect of the administration are branded as traitors and must be silenced. i thought the previous administration was bad because of the amorality. this is far worse

You can drop her a line and let her know what you think about all this.

Here at Facing South and the Institute, we've long been interested in the billions of dollars flowing to private military contractors. Halliburton, Custer Battles, and many other notorious contractors are based in the South, and the region as a whole is disproportionately dependent on military dollars for its economic well-being.

So it's encouraging to see that the Democratic Policy Committee is holding a Congressional hearing this coming Monday on the issue, with what promise to be some very illuminating testimonials:

"An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq"

Monday, June 27, 2005
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
138 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Overview

Previously undisclosed Defense Department audits reveal that Halliburton's overcharges in Iraq have skyrocketed. Under the company's two largest, multi-billion-dollar contracts - one to repair Iraq's oil infrastructure (RIO), the second to provide logistical support for American troops (LOGCAP) - Halliburton's overcharges now dwarf the amounts publicly disclosed by the Bush Administration. At this hearing, Senator Dorgan and Representative Waxman will release a report detailing these overcharges, and whistleblower witnesses will explain how Halliburton and the Bush Administration have overcharged the American taxpayer by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Witnesses

Bunnatine Greenhouse: Bunny Greenhouse is the top civilian contracting official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for reviewing all contracts worth more than $10 million. After objecting to special treatment for Halliburton on several occasions, Greenhouse was bypassed, ignored, and ultimately forced to resign or face demotion. Ms. Greenhouse will report on how Halliburton was awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts without competitive bidding.

Whistleblower 2: From February 2004 through April 2004, this witness was employed by Halliburton subsidiary KBR as a Food Production Manager at Camp Anaconda in Iraq. While in Iraq, he witnessed firsthand KBR's practice of overcharging for dining hall services as well as efforts by KBR managers to avoid the scrutiny of government auditors. Because they suspected he would raise concerns with those auditors, KBR managers sent him to a more dangerous camp in Fallujah during the auditors' visit to Camp Anaconda. His convoy was attacked on the return from Fallujah.

Witness 3: This witness is an executive with a security and operations management firm that has contracts to monitor and secure the loading and delivery of Kuwaiti fuels into Iraq for use and sale by Iraq's state oil company. He is expected to testify that Halliburton's overcharges for the transport of fuel are even greater than previously known and that, despite its claims, KBR has not completed key fuel distribution infrastructure work.

The hearing comes just as we learn that Halliburton has received another contract, this one to support U.S. troops in the Balkans, worth up to $1 billion.

Do you remember what happened the last time the Army gave Halliburton a contract in the Balkans? Think Progress does:

The General Accounting Office found in 1997 Halliburton “billed the Army for questionable expenses for work in the Balkans, including charges of $85.98 per sheet of plywood that cost $14.06. A year 2000 follow-up report on the Balkans work that found inflated costs, including charges for cleaning some offices up to four times a day.” In all, the GAO said KBR’s cost-overruns in the Balkans “inflated the original contract price by 32 percent.”

Nothing like rewarding good behavior.

This morning, Robert Orr -- a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice and leader of the conservative North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law -- filed a historic lawsuit seeking to block $225 million in subsidies awarded to Dell Inc. last year.

For those unfamiliar with the deal: last year Gov. Mike Easley (Dem) secretly pushed a major deal to recruit Dell to set up a manufacturing plant in the state. In a special session, the North Carolina legislature went along, awarding Dell tax breaks and other incentives that will cost the state $225 million over 15 years. Along with county and city subsidies for the plant, which may generate up to 6,000 jobs in hard-hit Forsyth County, the total price tag comes to over $242 million -- or roughly $120,000 per job.

But a growing coalition of advocates are questioning the deal and fighting to ensure such a give-away doesn't happen again. What makes Orr's lawsuit historic is that he is a well-known judge who is part of a conservative movement that opposes corporate subsidies because they violate principles of free interstate commerce enshrined by the constitution:

The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law is part of a network of groups seeking to bring lawsuits around the country in support of a ruling in the case of Cuno v. DaimlerChrysler. In 2004, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in that case that Ohio's investment tax credit unconstitutionally discriminated against interstate commerce.

The Ohio decision does not apply in North Carolina, but the parties in the case are seeking review by the U.S. Supreme Court that anti-subsidy groups hope could set a precedent.

Progressives need allies like this. For decades, corporations have soaked billions of dollars from cash-strapped governments seeking to lure footloose companies to their areas. The corporate bidding game now costs state and local governments some $50 billion a year in deals that are often made in secret, and offer little protections for workers, the environment and the communities they move into.

For those interested in learning more about the dangerous game of corporate "recruitment" subsidies and how citizens can fight back, visit our friends at Good Jobs First. You can also check out this great book by GJF director Greg LeRoy, The Great American Jobs Scam.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), representing eastern North Carolina, has drawn fire from Republicans and praise from progressives for his growing opposition to the Iraq war. Today's Raleigh News & Observer reports another reason to like Jones: his opposition to rigged trade deals that are wreaking havoc in communities across the South:

Jones once again found himself at odds with President Bush when he appeared at a Washington news conference to oppose the administration-backed Central American Free Trade Agreement.

"CAFTA is nothing but an extension of NAFTA -- 85 percent of the language in CAFTA is identical to NAFTA," Jones said. "Since NAFTA was signed, my home state of North Carolina has lost over 200,000 manufacturing jobs."

In other words, the conservative Congressman from N.C. has a more thoughtful position on what may be the two most important issues of the day -- the Iraq quagmire and trade deals slamming millions of working families -- than most Democrats.

An added bonus: Jones also voted to support Rep. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) amendment last week to block the FBI and Justice Department from using the Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips, an invasive move pushed by the Bush Administration.

By the way, there have been two especially good pieces lately about Jones' conversion on Iraq. The Charlotte Observer's excellent columnist Jack Betts wrote last Sunday about the parallels between Jones' awakening and that of two conservative North Carolina Senators -- Sam Ervin and Everett Jordan -- during the Vietnam era. Jan Frel's piece in Alternet yesterday also offers a good, more editorial, account of what motivated Jones to change heart. Both are worth reading.

Disney, watch out: the Southern Baptists are coming! That's the announcement coming out of the Southern Baptist Convention being held this week:

Southern US Baptists ended an eight-year boycott of the Walt Disney Company for violating "moral righteousness and traditional family values" in a vote on the final day of the faith’s annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee today ...

At the SBC’s 1997 convention in Dallas, a resolution was passed calling for Southern Baptists to refrain from patronising Disney theme parks and Disney products, mainly because of the entertainment company’s decision to give benefits to companions of gay employees.

“We felt like it was time to end it. We’re hopeful Disney will do what the resolution calls for,” [Gene] Mims [sponsor of the resolution] added.

In other words, the boycott utterly failed. Despite a full-scale, eight-year war waged by all the soldiers the far-right Baptists could muster against Disney's supposed "orgy of depravity," the boycott ended up having little impact on Disney's bottom line. Earlier this month, thousands of gay and lesbian Americans flocked to Disney World for another wildly successful "Disney Gay Day."

The Baptist's aren't the only ones to throw in the towel. Earlier this year, the American Family Association "scrapped a nine-year boycott of the Disney Corporation, admitting that the effort had failed to cause Disney to alter its gay-friendly policies," according to news reports.

The radical fundamentalist right has suffered a bitter defeat, and now can only dejectedly stumble back to Disney's gates, elated tikes in tow.

Sounds like a victory for progress to me.

[Ed. Note: Once again we welcome our resident film afficianado, David Fellerath, for some film blogging.]

Readers of the Independent Weekly may have seen Peter Eichenberger’s impassioned and vividly metaphor-ized piece about Raleigh development and the ways in which developers are tearing down the old city and erecting big boxes while other builders have their way with the green space, paving it over with pretentiously named developments. Evidence is everywhere, of course, but I saw something remarkable on the highway to Creedmoor last Friday, riding back on my motorcycle from Raleigh. In the middle of the lonesome countryside, there was a fancy development in progress called the Barony. Yes, the Barony. I spent so much time marveling at the word “barony” that I didn’t get a clear read on the development’s motto but I think it was “Preserved Luxury.”

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for an excuse to get organized around this issue, my friend Denver Hill at the Colony Theater in Raleigh is hosting a screening of a doomsday movie called The End of Suburbia, which contains the daunting subtitle “Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream.”

Although it’s hosted by Barrie Zwicker, the film is largely a platform for the tireless anti-suburban curmudgeon James Howard Kunstler. A few years ago I read Kunstler’s Home From Nowhere in which he recommends the elimination of all zoning codes, arguing that such laws are the means by which realtor-backed governments gladly encourage suburban sprawl. That’s why all rapidly developing communities (like Raleigh-Cary-Durham) end up looking like Greater Atlanta rather than Portland, San Francisco or Boston – or Paris, Florence or Prague.

But The End of Suburbia goes further, deploying energy experts to tell us, over and over, that oil production is near its peak. Our way of life is near its end, various experts tell us with occasional unseemly relish. One of the film’s most convincing witnesses is Matthew Simmons, investment banker to Halliburton, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of Dick Cheney’s legendary energy task force. When Simmons says the oil is gone, it’s time to get nervous.

The End of Suburbia will screen at 7 p.m. at the Colony Theater today, Wednesday, June 22. The evening will also a feature short film presentation by local activist Rhonda Strickland (Raleigh Fight Big Media). Dennis Markatos-Soriano of SURGE will lead the Q&A.

For those with bicycles, Denver will be leading a group ride over to the theater. Muster your bikes at Whitaker Mill and Glenwood, in the parking lot behind Hayes Barton Baptist Church at 5:30 p.m.

Tonight, the PBS show Frontline will broadcast "Private Warriors," what promises to be an excellent look into private contractors working in Iraq. From the Frontline website:

FRONTLINE returns to Iraq, this time to embed with Halliburton/KBR, and to take a hard look at private contractors like Blackwater, Aegis and Erinys, who play an increasingly critical role in running U.S. military supply lines, providing armed protection, and operating U.S. military bases. These private warriors are targeted by insurgents and in turn have been criticized for their rough treatment of Iraqi civilians. Their dramatic story illuminates the Pentagon's new reliance on corporate outsourcing and raises tough questions about where they fit in the chain of command and the price we are paying for their role in the war.

Following the broadcast, Frontline will do a run-down of the major contractors working in Iraq, showcase stories from civilian contractors, and explore the growth of our privatized military. Definitely check it out.

Amtrak isn’t the only transportation system whose service to small-town and rural areas is at risk. “The Greyhound has always been the savior of small-town America,” notes the St. Petersburg Times. But not for long. The bus line is “streamlining” service in most of the Southeast (including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee), which means that buses will no longer stop in small towns all across the South.

“For many citizens of the Black Belt who do not own automobiles transportation just got a little tougher,” warns the Demopolis (Ala.) Times. The St. Petersburg Times reports on how the elimination of stops in 33 Florida small towns will affect the people who depend on buses – “the carless, the jobless, and those who are too afraid or too poor to fly.” Among the bus riders the reporter encounters – a woman who has just left her husband, a drug-dealing Vietnam vet, a mysterious, black-hatted man looking like a “Latino Johnny Cash” -- “the only common denominator that I saw was poverty.”

The recent spate of thefts and lost records at banks and credit companies, which have rendered millions of consumers vulnerable to fraud and identity theft, is nothing new. From Inner City Press:

CitiFinancial on June 6 admitted that it has lost nearly four million consumers’ files -- all customers of CitiFinancial’s branch system. The files lost include Social Security numbers. While the company expressed shock and predicted that no harm will come of it, it’s worth noting (as much of the other press didn’t) that CitiFinancial has had this problem before. For example, in Florida in 2002, as reported by the local NBC TV affiliate there,

“[The Naples office of] Citifinancial even left its files in convenient boxes, making it easy for anyone who wanted to cart them away. NBC2 decided to find out what kinds of records were there.

“What was found surprised even seasoned investigators: drivers license information, credit reports, social security numbers, even bank account numbers — for more than 1,000 people. ‘This would be a treasure trove of information for an identity thief. People’s names, social security numbers, banking information,’ said David White of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office Economic Crimes Unit. White said there was enough personal information in the company’s trash for an identity thief to bankrupt anyone. He said a thief could easily take over someone’s bank accounts with the data contained in the trashed documents...”

Click here to see the original story from the NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla.

(Thanks to Mike Hudson.)

It's been at least a few hours since Gary or I blogged about the Senate lynching resolution scandal, so I feel moved to weigh in with one more thought, this one about the regional character of the Lackadaisical About Lynching Caucus.

Today's much-discussed Roll Call story -- which showed the story still had legs -- noted that Democrats are painting the failure of conservative Senators to take a stance against lynching as part of a Republican "Southern Strategy" to appeal to racist whites. But the reality may be more troubling.

To review, here are the names of the recalcitrant 13 Senators who remain unapologetic for their failure to co-sponsor the anti-lynching resolution:

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.); Robert Bennett (R-Utah); Michael Enzi and Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.); Judd Gregg and John Sununu (R- N.H.); Richard Shelby (R-Ala.); Jon Kyl (R-Arizona); Gordon Smith (R-Ore.); John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas); and Thad Cochran and Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

Notice something interesting about that list? It might be clearer if we add the names of the eight Senators who, even though the resolution had been circulating for months, were so unmoved by the cause that they waited until after it passed to sign on:

Kent Conrad (D-N.D.); Jack Reed (D-RI); Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.); George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio); Lisa Murkowski (R-Ark.); Mike Crapo (R-Idaho); Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa); and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) (note the three Democrats; this wasn't just a partisan issue).

Lynching was largely a Southern phenomenon; of the over 4,700 documented lynchings that took place between 1882 and 1968, 80% happened in 13 Southern states. Almost half occurred in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas alone.

Yet of the 21 Senators who have either refused to apologize for the practice, or who came galloping to the cause only after the media firestorm had erupted, fully 14 -- two out of three -- came from outside of the South. Over half of the 13 Senators who hold out to this very day are non-Southerners.

Not to let the seven Southern Senators off the hook. But clearly they have no monopoly on racial insensitivity and bad judgement, and its equally clear the Lackadaisical Caucus' silence was more than a move to appease a few racist whites in Dixie. What should worry people is that the whatever political dynamic is at work, it's gone national, and progressives don't do anyone any favors by failing to acknowledge this goes way beyond the South.

Bob Geary of the Independent Weekly reports that payday lending in North Carolina is alive and well. This upstanding “industry” preys on people living paycheck-to-paycheck, giving them “advances” on future wages with effective interest rates of up to 400 percent. In 1997, the state implemented an “experimental” law allowing payday lending; but four years later, after another fight in the legislature, the experiment was allowed to expire, making the practice once again illegal in the state. While most smaller, mom’n’pop loan sharks were put out of business, major outfits like Advance America (with 2004 revenues in excess of $500 million) have used a variety of legal dodges to continue their predations in the state, earning more money every year: payday lending, Bob says, is now a $40 billion a year business nationwide.

We would be remiss, by the way, not to note that a team of writers at Southern Exposure, led by investigative reporter Mike Hudson, turned out the first major exposé of the predatory lending industry, “Poverty, Inc.,” back in 1993 (nominated for a National Magazine Award). A decade later we followed up with the George Polk Award-winning “Banking on Misery,” another package of stories (again featuring several writers coordinated by Mike) that dealt with auto financing, the credit card industry, and Citicorp, the last showing how the global financial giant was built largely on the backs of poor, disadvantaged consumers inveigled into unfair and misleading mortgages. (Never miss an opportunity to plug ourselves, do we?)

Note that this is a recent mayor of Philadelphia, Miss. From the AP (via the Nashville Tennessean):

The defense rested Monday in the trial of a former Ku Klux Klanman in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers after a former mayor testified that the white-supremacist group was a “peaceful organization.”

Harlan Majure, who was mayor of this rural Mississippi town in the 1990s, said Edgar Ray Killen was a good man and that the part-time preacher's Klan membership would not change his opinion.

Majur said the Klan “did a lot of good up here” and said he was not personally aware of the organization's bloody past.

“As far as I know it's a peaceful organization,” Majure said. His comment was met with murmurs in the packed courtroom.

The Mobile Register has produced an excellent package of reports on mercury contamination in Alabama’s “Chemical Alley,” much of it originating at the Olin Corp.’s plant in McIntosh, Ala. The plant stopped using mercury to produced chlorine a quarter-century ago, yet the toxic liquid metal is still seeping from the plant site into rivers where it contaminates fish and flows ultimately out into Mobile Bay. In 2002, state investigators caught what’s believed to be the most mercury-saturated fish ever found in North America, an unfortunate bass with mercury levels 28 times higher than EPA’s safe limit.

State officials have tried to assure locals that there’s no immediate danger, but many aren’t buying it. At a recent meeting, the Register reports,

residents and a lawyer representing them accused state and federal officials of looking after corporations at the expense of the people, of relying on environmental monitoring conducted by those corporations instead of performing their own tests, and of using lower standards in Alabama than in other parts of the country.

Researchers have criticized the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for using “primitive” methods to monitor mercury levels. ADEM’s test is so poor it comes back negative even for water with 42 times the average concentration of mercury.

MINOR EDIT 6-21-05 10:28 a.m.

(Apologies for slight overlap with previous post.)

Here, courtesy of our new best friends, are some explanations for not supporting the lynching apology from a few of the dead-end Southern senators. Only Lamar Alexander was motivated to come up with a quasi-reasonable explanation; Trent Lott should win some kind of prize for his clumsy attempt to change the subject:

Senator Alexander, in a lengthy speech submitted for the Congressional record, argued the best way for the Senate “to condemn lynching is to get to work” on legislation promoting good schools and better health care for blacks.

But some, like Senators Cochran, Cornyn and Lott, raised pointed questions about the wisdom of official apologies.

Is it necessary, they asked, for politicians to confess to sins they personally did not commit? And when the government begins apologizing, where and when does it stop?

“I don’t think I’ll get in the business of apologizing for acts that previous Senates took,” Senator Cochran said.

His Mississippi colleague, Senator Lott, who lost his post as Senate majority leader several years ago over racially insensitive remarks, said: “Where do we end all of this? Are we going to apologize for not doing the right thing on Social Security?”

The lynching apology was not supposed to be an expression of personal regret by senators as individuals (unless there some real skeletons in their closets) but rather an institutional (and I guess to some extent national) apology to a group that suffered as a result of that institution’s actions or inactions. (Cochran’s comment at least seems to get that.)

A common reaction by white Americans (and not just conservatives) to official apologies by the U.S. is to cry, “What? How dare you apologize on my behalf? My ancestors didn’t own any slaves; they were too busy being chased around by Cossacks” (or the Kaiser’s troops, or whomever). What’s noteworthy (aside from the usual attempt to claim exculpatory victimhood) is the immediate assumption that the apology is on behalf of white people; that is, the institution (the U.S. government) is immediately conflated with white people in the United States, as if it only represented them. Somehow it’s never recognized that institutional apologies are primarily issues between (for example) African Americans and their own government, which failed them badly over many decades.

Just when the 13 Republican Senators who declined to co-sponsor the Senate's lynching apology resolution last week thought it was safe to poke their heads above the political parapet -- maybe a lazy June weekend would cause folks to forget? -- today's Roll Call (via CapitolBuzz) brings the news that progressives aren't letting it go:

From being busy with other legislative business to a belief that the measure was simply not necessary, 13 Senate Republicans offered a variety of explanations for their decision not to co-sponsor a resolution apologizing for the chamber’s past inaction on lynching.

As of late Friday afternoon, the measure’s author, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), had 86 co-sponsors, eight of whom — five Republicans and three Democrats — signed on after its Monday evening passage, according to a summary on the THOMAS Web site.

As Roll Call notes, "Rarely has a nonbinding Senate resolution with such broad bipartisan support turned into a touchstone for controversy after its passage by a voice vote," probably because "at least three" Senators remain unapologetic about their stance. Here's Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.):

I don’t feel I should apologize for the passage of or the failure to pass any legislation by the U.S. Senate. But I deplore and regret that lynchings occurred and that those committing them were not punished.

Unfortunately, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) used a different excuse in Roll Call than he used last week (as reported in Facing South), namely his candid appraisal that he had already tossed African-Americans a bone by supporting Black History Month, and isn't expecting him to denounce lynching just going a little too far?

But seriously, who do the Silent 13 think their constituency is? Sure, racism is alive and well in the South and beyond. But most voters don't like to think of themselves that way, and certainly wouldn't want to be labeled as apologists for lynching.

Democrats are accusing the 13 of employing a "Southern Strategy" to apease racist white voters, but I don't buy it. That's too small a sliver of the electorate, and if anything, the GOP sees repackaging itself as a "black friendly" party as a top priority.

What we're witnessing in the lynching resolution scandal is a handful of unreconstructed Senators who didn't get the memo about celebrating diversity, or promptly fed into into the paper shredder. Let's not make excuses for them: they aren't speaking for the voters, just revealing their own not-so-hidden aversion to justice and progress.

A tip of the hat to the New York Times for their kind mention of Facing South in the "What's Online" section this morning. For those who aren't registered or otherwise can't get to the piece, here's what they said:

GOING SOUTH The blog (southernstudies.org) run by the Institute for Southern Studies, "Facing South," takes on all the cultural and political issues you might expect: racism, inequality, political organizing, the war in Iraq. But there is also a heavy focus on economic and business issues. It is unabashed in its political point of view, but is light on commentary, often just presenting the facts of news articles about corporate corruption and economic inequality. Sometimes, though, comment there must be, as with the recent post referring to an article about a furniture company that is laying off 1,200 workers in North Carolina. " 'Labor costs' are often blamed for the loss of Southern manufacturing," writes a blogger, Chris Kromm, "which implies that it's somehow blue collar plant workers who are at fault for footloose factories leaving the country. Rigged trade deals without labor standards (and corporations all too willing to take advantage of them) are better targets."

And thanks to reader LK in South Carolina for the tip.

This Sunday, June 19, African-Americans across the South and beyond (and others who recognize the holiday) will celebrate Juneteenth. This is the 140th anniversary of what many call "America's Second Independence Day," marking the day in 1865 -- over two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation -- that slaves in Texas were finally set free.

Here's a description we ran in Southern Exposure magazine in 1977:

The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, did not have any effect in Texas because to little of the state was occupied by Northern troops. When Lee surrendered in April, 1865, most Texas plantations were still intact, and a quarter-million black people were working as slaves.

It was not until June 19, 1865 -- when General George Granger arrived with Yankee troops in Galveston and issued his own emancipation decree -- that slaves were actually freed in Texas. June 19 -- "Juneteenth" -- therefore became the day of celebration.

Omitted from the history books and largely ignored by the mainstream (white) media, Juneteenth nonetheless thrived as a popular underground holiday, especially in the black South. Here's what a retired teacher who grew up in a community of black landowners around the turn of the century (so rare today) told Southern Exposure in 1977:

It was just a happy, getting-together day. We'd be farming and everybody would try to get the land clean by the nineteenth. If I had my crop cleaned out and you didn't have yours cleaned, I would come over and try to get yours cleaned out, too. We all worked for that day: to have the crops cleaned to take that holiday. We'd get together and buy a beef, or maybe someone would throw in a beef or part of a hog. Then we'd get together to barbecue it. The women would fix baskets, salads, cakes and pies. And we'd all meet at a special place. There would be soda water and ice cream. We'd make our own ice cream. And we would have ball games, horse races, goose-neck pullings and some kind of music at night. Wouldn't have sermons or spirituals; it was just a joyful day."

Texas didn't recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday until 1980, and as one person notes, "To this day, the Lone Star State remains alone in its affirmation of an anniversary of significance to many African Americans." [ed note: see update below]

Yet Juneteenth still thrives as a patchwork quilt of grassroots celebrations across the country -- still strongest in the South, but now reaching into places like Milwaukee and Minneapolis, where two of the biggest festivals are held.

For information about Juneteenth and celebrations in your area, check out this site. And have a great Juneteenth weekend!

UPDATE ONE: My source on Texas being the only state to recognize Juneteenth was wrong (I thought it was, should have trusted instinct). The Texas Monthly sets us straight:

MYTH: Juneteenth is a celebration unique to Texas.

REALITY: It was for 115 years, becoming an official state holiday in 1980, but its popularity spread nationwide after a 1991 Smithsonian exhibit showcased the history of black Texans’ Emancipation Day. Now Alaska, Florida, and thirteen other states also officially recognize Juneteenth.

UPDATE TWO: I cross-posted this over at DKos, which led to some good discussion about where Juneteenth is being celebrated. Los Angeles and Seattle are in full celebration mode. Salt Lake City did things its own way and celebrated last weekend.

UPDATE THREE: A reader emails to recommend Ralph Ellison's novel Juneteenth, which he started in 1951 and died in 1994 before completing. Here's an interesting piece on how the book came together.

I was at meetings in South Carolina the last two days -- meeting some great progressive advocates in the state -- and somehow Wednesday night found myself at a fundraiser for the Richland County Democratic Party in Columbia, the state capitol. I was waved in free with my Southern Exposure media credentials.

The heat was boiling and the attendance fair-to-middlin', but overall spirits were high. The jovial atmosphere was aided by the presence of a couple Dem bigshots, former Sen. Fritz Hollings and Don Fowler, the former chair of the DNC.

With hot dogs and Bud Light the main fare, the event was pretty low key, which is why it was especially amusing to fire up my laptop Thursday and find The Drudge Report hyping a supposedly major "straw poll" picking the Dems' 2008 presidential candidate at the event, which Hillary Clinton narrowly won. Other right-wingers were similarly fascinated by the results, which they claimed offered "the first real look we've gotten at how Democrat voters feel about their 2008 presidential candidates."

Um, no. It offers