The Bush administration has done its utmost to butcher regulations that were in place to protect people and/or the environment.
Regulatory bodies, such as the EPA and FEMA have been stripped of competence and budgets. Instead, management positions are filled with incompetent cronies (brownies anyone?), while internal and external oversight are made perfunctory tasks.

But this administration will never cease to amaze in finding new ways of gutting corporate and public responsibility and accountability at the cost of the common man.

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Well, the headline may be a bit of an exaggeration.
But this BBC-report brings some stunning allegations against the Republican (presumtive) nominee.

'When John McCain was my captive'

While quietly perusing the WaPo webpages, the following paragraph suddenly screamed out at me:

"If you ask people whether they think the drain cleaner they use in their homes has been tested for safety, they think, 'Of course, the government would have never allowed a product on the market without knowing it's safe,' " said Richard Denison, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. "When you tell them that's not the case, they can't believe it."

Wow!

We've already been exposed to so much evil; Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, torture, renditions. The news of secret prison ships is therefore not much of a surprise - we have come to expect this kind of travesty from this administration.

Tomorrow's Guardian:

US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships

The reference in the title shouldn't require much clarification, but let me just give you a brief reminder that a week can be a very long time in international politics.
Less than a week ago, George W. Bush gave a speech to Knesset during his tour of the Middle-East (the main purpose of the tour was to beg for more Saudi oil production, a request that was rebuffed). Bush made controversial remarks that caused quite an uproar.

Bush's appeasement malarkey

WHEN HE hinted to the Israeli Knesset this week that Barack Obama was an appeaser for being willing to talk to Iran, President Bush broke an unwritten rule against partisan politicking on foreign shores. He also displayed confusion about his own policies - and about the cause of his calamitous foreign policy failures.

[...]

"Some seem to believe," Bush told the Knesset, "that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along." He was comparing unnamed appeasers of today to isolationists who thought they could negotiate with Nazi Germany and keep the United States out of World War II. Bush implied that Obama would be just that naive.

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It's Passover and not much time for writing. But since there is no current Open Thread I'll put these links and quotes in a diary. This is worse than the John Yoo memos.

How the military was hoodwinked into torture.

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Here's a little story that won't get much traction in the media, but intrepid bloggers should be aware.

Google is up to nothing good and is willingly participating in censorship. And this story is not based abroad, such as the sorry 'Google censors itself for China'-story.

Leading internet company Google has said it will censor its search services in China in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market.

Google has offered a Chinese-language version of its search engine for years but users have been frustrated by government blocks on the site.

The company is setting up a new site - Google.cn - which it will censor itself to satisfy the authorities in Beijing.

This time, it is happening right here in the US and Google is treading on thin ice with regards to freedom of expression.

Dumped on the United Nations, that is!

I'm not really inclined to write a diary entry this morning, but some recent articles on a blog on UN affairs that I frequent deserve some attention outside it's usual readership.

Two recent scandals involving high-level UN managers nominated and pushed by the Bush administration.

Jane Holl Lute (L 1999) - UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, 2003-present; wife of Lt. General Douglas E. Lute, President Bush's "War Czar" ( (listed under "Other alumni in Politics)

Ann M. Veneman assumed the leadership of UNICEF on May 1, 2005, becoming the fifth Executive Director to lead UNICEF in its 60-year history. Prior to joining UNICEF, Veneman served as the 27th Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture from 2001 to 2005.

Follow below to see how these senior officials' 'leadership' is tarnishing the UN and it's reputation.

There has not been much publicity over Bush' upcoming trip to Israel. And why should there be, as the visit will only serve to again emphasize what a walking disaster the pResident is?

Bush To Make His First Visit To Israel

But Bush soldiers on as if reality is something that affects only distant galaxies. On the offensive again:

Bush says US would defend Israel if Iran attacks

JERUSALEM (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said Washington would defend its close ally Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, in remarks broadcast on Israeli army radio on Sunday.

"Whether there's an imminent attack coming, I don't think so," Bush said in excerpts of an interview with an Israeli television station to be aired in its entirety later in the day.

"If Iran did strike Israel... We will defend our ally, no ands, ifs or buts," he said.

Bush's statements came just days before he arrives in the region for his first visit since taking office in January 2001 and the first trip by a sitting US president since December 1998.

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           Go visit FreeRice!

A great thank you to Renee in Ohio who posted a link in this comment a few days ago. curly and I spent some time at the link Saturday morning and achieved a decent number of rice grains donated. Go have some fun! Challenge yourself to see which level you can reach. You may have a hard time leaving once you get started, but your new addiction is all for a good cause.

More below:

All the preparations are (hopefully) done and the sights, tastes and smells of Christmas can finally soothe our pre-Christmas stress.  But there is one more sense that need stimulation; we also want to hear the sound of the season to really find the mood.

There is the familiar buzz of Christmas carols, songs and jingles - too often corrupted as muzak in the shopping malls. But there are also classics - no doubt different ones for all of us.

For me, the feeling of Christmas really settles in when I can play Händel's Messiah uninterrupted (all 3 CDs) in the morning of Christmas Eve while the final preparations are made. But what really gives me goose bumps and brings tears to my eyes is listening to Jussi Björling singing `Julsang - O Helga Natt' [Yule Song - Oh Holy Night] once the Evening really settles in - that is the start of Christmas.

This Swede who died in 1960 at the age of only 49 was possibly the best tenor of the last century; he blows the `Three Tenors' right out of the water in my opinion.

Jussi Björling
[...]

 Europe soon followed, as well as Chicago and Buenos Aires and he finally appeared at the MET in 1938 as Rodolfo. He was then only 26.

He reached immense acclaim during his career and undoubtedly came to represent to many a music lover the voice of the century. With a smooth yet full-bodied timbre and an extraordinary evenness of tone, Jussi Björling possessed one of the most distinct tenor voices in history, topped by a ringing top B flat and a particularity for the melancholy. Jussi Björling came to be the only and unique non-Latin tenor that could rival the Italian dominance in the tenor heritage and he appeared while such grand and famed tenors as Martinelli, Schipa, Gigli and Lauri-Volpi were still present and active.

His health weakened during the 50's and suffered a heart attack in March 1960 just before going on-stage at a performance at London's Covent Garden but did still perform. He died six months later in Sweden.

Listen for yourself, never mind that he sings in Swedish:

What's your holiday music?

The man I would have like to seen as the Democratic presidential candidate received a warm welcome in Oslo Friday morning as he arrived for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies that will take place on Monday.

Prize winners are normally brought from Oslo Airport in a limousine motorcade, a drive of almost an hour to downtown Oslo.

Al and Tipper Gore took the train!

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." ~ Plato

What's going on today?

Another nail in the coffin for democracy and civil rights; your local firehouse is now being enrolled to further encroach on your privacy.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people's privacy.

Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don't need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning.

But there are fears that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items such as building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials.