The US military announced that an apparent human held at Guantanamo prison has committed suicide.

They tried to save his life but he was pronounced dead," said Mario Alvarez, a Miami-based spokesman for the [US Southern] Command.

The death occurred only yesterday, so understandably the military is still trying to learn the full details about the incident on that remote island.

A spokesman for detention operations, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, declined to comment, referring questions to the Miami-based Southern Command...

Hey, wanna get really bummed out? And/or very probably enraged? Just pick up a copy or log on to the New York Times website and read the story entitled, Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process. That’s right—with all that we now know about climate change and mercury and acid rain and well, just how unbelievably dirty coal can be—coal is being championed as the fuel of the future. Everything old is new again!

Where there are union wins, there has to be lots of employees coming together to support one another. A new case says worker solidarity is protected by the National Labor Relations Act, even when the employees work for different employers.

among ourselves and with all nations.

I hope you've had a chance by now to read at least the first few chapters of The Golden Ass. The first post earlier this week gave some general background on Apuleius. Now let's get into the action.

As part of the standard pre-holiday fluff news story there is that perennial favorite - the cost of gasoline for that holiday get-away. A very non-fluffy angle would involve checking into why gasoline costs what it does. There was even a serious study released this past week that would have provided the facts. But it was easier just to interview travelers on their thoughts than provide real information that might upset us on our holiday weekend.

For the last two months, George Bush and his Republican defenders have been tossing the term "surrender" in the faces of his critics. Advocates of withdrawal from Iraq, they claim, are proposing to "surrender to the terrorists"; a timetable for withdrawal is a "surrender date".

Originally this rhetorical trope was invented when Republicans needed to vilify Rep. John Murtha for urging withdrawal in 2005. Mission accomplished, the rhetoric of "surrender" earned some well deserved R&R until the Democratic victory in the 2006 election. The old trope was dusted off again to smear anybody trying to force Bush's hand.

Does it make the slightest sense at all to liken withdrawal from Iraq, to "surrender"?

We called it Decoration Day in my small midwestern town. The peonies were always in full bloom by then, and we'd cut them to take to the cemetaries where our war dead were buried.

President Bush, at yesterday's Rose Garden press conference, on the Chinese government's reluctance to open its markets to U.S. beef producers:

They need to be eating U.S. beef. It's good for them

Because clearly a nation of 1.3 billion people can't possibly know how to take care of themselves.

When will this long national nightmare finally end?

Vixi duellis nuper idoneus
et militavi non sine gloria.

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had cleaning and storage. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after positioning. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Sunny
Watches from the window eyes glistening like tears,
And to-day we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the manual swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The children
Surge toward her with their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the strap-latch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his teeth. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The Democrats
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their teeth.

Social Security has dropped out of the news, but that does not mean it is not an issue that must be dealt with. A new report makes a bold argument for the value of preserving and even enhancing Social Security.

According to the IRS the private tax collectors are Very Very Very good, and taxpayers are thrilled to do business with them. They are also bringing in buckets of money. Or on the other hand in the reality-based community . . .

The House Ways and Means Committee today held a hearing on the use of private contractors to collect tax debt owed to the IRS. The story is a big one and even made ABC News in a story that was highly critical of the practice. You can watch the ABC story here. Then . . .

Food stamps are one of the many elements of the mammoth farm bill now up for reauthorization, and four Congresspersons found an interesting way to draw attention to this issue. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), who introduced the Feeding America’s Families bill earlier this month, decided to live on food stamps for a week, and they recruited colleagues Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) to join them.

McGovern took the challenge along with his wife, Lisa McGovern, and the two launched a Food Stamp Challenge blog to share their experiences and the media coverage of the Congressional effort. (Other public officials have also taken the challenge; this week’s New Yorker covers city council member Eric Gioia’s efforts.) What they’ve learned isn’t surprising to the 26 million Americans who rely on this program every month, but their highly publicized experience may get some important points across.

Last week, I wrote about new GAO reports that found serious problems in ensuring that employees of private contractors have security clearances - problems on every level.

Perhaps readers might enjoy doing something a little different over the holiday weekend. At the moment I'm about to start with students a week-long discussion of one of the most interesting and amusing literary works from antiquity, The Golden Ass of Apuleius (originally entitled The Metamorphoses of Lucius). I can't imagine anybody so incurious or stiff-necked, who would not enjoy reading and discussing this fascinating novel. So since I'm going to have The Golden Ass on my mind, over the next week, I think I'll post several commentaries here at Unbossed on aspects of the novel--things about the work and its author that most interest me, beginning at the beginning.

You're very welcome to read along in the novel and join in the conversation, asking questions or adding your own comments. If you don't already know the novel, I think you'll find it a wonderful and playful introduction to the world of the ancient Romans and Greeks.

It's not just Atlantic City casino dealers who are checking the "Yes" box in NLRB elections. The union organizing victories are spreading from Atlantic City to Nevada now.

A bill passed by the House sure does.

US CEOs are paid twice as much as those in the UK and three times as much as Japanese CEOs.

It's not that size doesn't matter, but even more important than size are questions about the process that led to those huge salaries and the impact of those salaries.

Proponents of ethanol and bio diesel hail these two fuels as the perfect solution to the problem of how to maintain a competitive edge in business while being kind to our planet.

Yesterday this post discussed a notorious telemarketing scandal in which a crooked Pennsylvania company, Payment Processing Center, wrote fraudulent (unsigned) checks drawn upon the accounts of many elderly victims of con artists. P.P.C. cleaned out the victims' bank accounts by running the fraudulent checks through its accounts in a Philadelphia branch of Wachovia Bank. Wachovia had many clues that P.P.C. was engaged in a racket--including warnings from other banks--but failed to close down P.P.C.'s accounts. Though federal authorities have not charged Wachovia in the scam, the bank is now facing a civil suit.

I've discovered further information about that suit, and about the relationship between Wachovia and P.P.C., which suggests that the matter is even more scandalous than I'd indicated in the original post.

US law has long forbidden child labor in the United States as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. US trade law also forbids importing products made by child labor or forced labor unless there is no US source for them. More specifically, Section 307 of the Tariff Act, bars importing goods made with forced or child labor unless sufficient amounts are not mined, produced, or manufactured here to satisfy "the consumptive demands of the United States."

This is obviously a moving target. The more companies move overseas, the less we have "mined, produced, or manufactured" here. The more we want to buy things, the less likely we are to find US products, so this loophole gives a free pass to buying goods made by child or forced labor. The more we buy cheaper goods made with forced labor or childe labor, the likely it is that companies will move work abroad, so the more likely it is . . .

So, it is time to close the loophole and get out of this loop.

The NY Times reports on an epidemic of financial fraud that has gone almost unchecked for years. These scams are perpetrated mostly on the elderly with the active or passive assistance of several (poorly) regulated service industries—especially banks. Of those banks, Wachovia appears to be the most culpable and certainly the most flagrant in its disregard for basic rules that would inhibit such fraud.

How much do you know about US worker rights? Today’s topic is vacation time and paid holidays.

Nanoparticles and, in particular, nanotubes are the hot research area these days. For example, they can act as tiny motors and take on any number of complex activities at the cellular level, including medical uses - including the targeted delivery of drugs.

The world wide funding put into nanotechnology research and development by governments, industry and venture capitalists was estimated to be around $9.6 billion in 2005 (Lux Resarch Inc. 2006). A large portion of this spending is still being allocated to the development of nanoparticulate materials due to their many novel physical and chemical properties raising high expectations for a variety of applications. One of these new materials is carbon nanotubes (CNT), which have commercial expectations in different manufacturing sectors.

OK, so what's the downside?

In recent years employers have increasingly used lockouts as a way to destroy union bargaining power, as well as permanently replacing strikers. The right to do either of these things is NOT in the National Labor Relations Act. They were both created by judicial amendments, a topic I discussed recently in a multi-part series that looked at how judges have gutted workplace laws by "interpreting" them in ways that destroy the rights congress had created. You can find that discussion here - 1 2 3 4

But a new case out of California suggests an interesting tactic to fight back.

Interest is, of course, in the eye of the beholder, but here are two reports that I think will catch your eyes. They involve DOD spending on weapons and the status of security clearances being granted to private contractor employees.

Michael "Axis of Evil" Gerson pens a stirring send-off to Tony Blair in today's Washington Post.

More than that of any other world leader, Blair's foreign policy approach is a rigorous, logical argument.

The late Robin Cook in his diary:

This was the parliamentary debate in which the prime minister presented the now notorious dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. I had been familiar with previous secret reporting on Iraq, and when I came to read the dossier I was surprised that there was so little new material in it. There was no new evidence that I could find of a dramatic increase in threat requiring urgent invasion.

This is whistleblower week. What a change to have public hearings that are praising whistleblowers rather than sweeping the problems they raise under the rug!

Here are a few links to the hearings - Private Sector Whistleblowers: Are there sufficient legal protections?

Attorney General Gonzales appears to think that his main duty is to block investigations of wrongdoing. In recent appearances before Senate and House investigations of the firing of US Attorneys, his memory of events has been so faulty as to be nearly pathological.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall...

It's one of those days when important and thoughtful commentary seems to greet you at every turn of the internet tubes. Perhaps on a day with so much high profile news, readers of Unbossed may appreciate some tips about excellent material that shouldn't be overlooked.

By a vote of 67 to 29 today, the Senate professed itself happy to leave total control of the Iraq war in the hands of Bush & Co. It's a vote of confidence in the administration's upper level mismanagement.

Today, Eleanor Holmes Norton – DC’s non-voting Congressional delegate – made the case for DC voting rights to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Last month, the House passed a bill that would give DC one voting House member; it would also add another House seat for Utah, which just missed getting another member based on its last census count (seats would be reapportioned after the next census and bring the total back to 435). If voting patterns hold, DC will elect a Democrat and Utah a Republican, so the Congressional balance of power won’t shift. Now the Senate needs to move on S. 1257, which Senators Lieberman, Hatch, and Bennett introduced earlier this month.

I’ve written before about the injustice of DC residents not having voting representation in Congress – we pay taxes and serve in the armed forces, but have no voice in decisions about spending tax money or invading other countries. Today, Eleanor Holmes Norton highlighted another reason why this legislation is so important:

George Bush's Iraq policy is built upon the pretense that Iraqi society will be able to heal itself if only some semblance of order can be restored. For the most part, Bush & Co. have succeeded in focusing debate in the U.S. on the question of whether and how public order can be restored. Yet the presumption that Iraqi society can be retrieved from the brink of disaster in that way strikes me as a mirage, at this late date.

Iraqi society has already been decapitated. Almost as efficiently as the Nazis worked to rid Germany of intellectuals, extremists in Iraq have killed or driven into exile a large proportion of the country's most highly educated and skilled classes. Even if the nefarious influences in Iraq could be eliminated with a simple restoration of order, why assume that the lost intellectuals would flock back to help rebuild the country? What assurance would there be that they could retrieve their own property, positions, and liberties?

No, I fear that Bush's failed occupation of Iraq has almost irreparably damaged Iraqi society.

The shameless Paul McNulty, Alberto Gonzales' right-hand man in the firing of the US Attorneys, finally announced his resignation today. But rather than just going, he's hanging on to his job at DoJ all summer. And rather than coming clean about his activities—beginning with the lies he told Congress in February—McNulty let on that he's leaving public service because he can't afford to live within his considerable salary ("financial realities of college-age children and two decades of public service lead me to a long overdue transition in my career.").

Some commentators, have tried to pretend that McNulty is a victim of the dishonorable behavior of Gonzales and the rest of that scrappy gang of White House plumbers exposed in this scandal. His old pal, Sen. Schumer, has been most aggressive in peddling that line.

[McNulty's] ultimate decision to step down, the [DoJ] aides said, was hastened by anger at being linked to the prosecutors' purge that Congress is investigating to determine if eight U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons.

But in fact McNulty was a willing participant in his own debasement. Why judge Paul McNulty harshly? Because we know enough of his career under Bush & Co. to confirm that he's lacking in real principle.

CEOs may claim to love markets, but not when it comes to setting their own pay. No, no, that is just too important to trust to the harsh reality of who really will pay outsize fees for a CEO who has driven a company into the ground. When only the best will do, CEOs get their pay set by compensation committees.

Now Cong. Waxman wants to open up that closed box and see what's inside.

The Comptroller General's Fiscal Wake-up Tour had been packing them in across the country. This hot act has been barnstorming the country, appearing in top venues everywhere and even making it to 60 Minutes. If you haven't caught them yet, maybe you should see if you can cop some tickets or watch some video here on America’s current financial condition and long-term fiscal outlook.

On April 11, we discussed the plight of the Capitol Power Plant Tunnel Crew that works for the Architect of the Capitol - our capitol - Washington, DC. The workers were exposed to asbestos over many years, and the architect, who had control over their working conditions, refused to take action to protect the workers. As a result, they suffered serious illness, and their boss, the Architect of the US Capitol has turned a deaf ear to their requests for compensation and fair treatment. If you have visited these buildings, then you have seen the results of their work - heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.

Few foods are more healthy than fruit—sometimes. Last month McClatchy ran an article that was widely printed and even rewritten and expanded. It described the boom in sales of blueberries and raspberries because of their high content of antioxidants.

What the article didn't say, however, is that these fruits are heavily sprayed with some pretty nasty fungicides, even by the standards of modern commercial growers. And talk about expensive—in supermarkets, these berries are nearly worth their weight in gold. For those who have a healthy fear of chemicals, organically grown berries are that much more expensive.

The obvious solution is to grow your own fruit. Since I have some experience in this area, I thought I might field questions from those who are hesitant to try it.

Two years ago, I wrote a piece on the campaign to keep older workers on the job way past normal retirement age. Then, the issue was to shore up Social Security. Now the issue of the lockbox and Social Security have dropped from public view, buried under an avalanche of scandals and the war.

As a result, a new study on employer views about whether they welcome the idea of employing older workers will get little notice. Still, if the results are ccorrect, since this study throws a big monkey wrench in plans for a grey workforce, it is worth at least a passing glance.

With the Bush administration, the Irony fairly drips:

The United States condemns the recent sentencings of democracy activists Anwar al-Bunni and Kamal Labwani to long terms of imprisonment and is alarmed by reports that they have been subjected to inhumane prison conditions [in Syria].

That appears in a high-minded statement of principle released today by the White House. Alert readers will recall that the same Bush administration shipped Maher Arar off to Syria to be tortured. Indeed, Syria has been a favorite destination for secret CIA flights carrying out "extraordinary renditions".

Are there any savings from privatizing? The only fair answer is: Who Knows?

Unlike the Administration, we at unbossed have never been inclined to bask in the rosy glow of sunny reports about the multi-$$$ privatization is supposed to save. Meanwhile, the Administratin has just soldiered on while contractors fail to perform and are never sanctioned.

But at long last OMB is putting its pretty little foot down. Apparently it is shocked, shocked to hear that wholesale looting of the public purse has been taking place. omg!

This week the House Select Revenue Measures and Income Security and Family Support subcommittee held a hearing as to whether employers misclassify employees as independent contractors - intentionally - in order to avoid taxes, insurance costs, and statutory protections for employees.

When workers are misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees, we all lose. Like $4.7 billion not paid in income taxes last year because of misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

The answer is "no", according to the Bush administration. They've been doing their best to school Congress in this simple fact—that it can't touch Bush & Co. It's a lesson that Democrats have been slow to learn.

Take for example the notorious appearance of Alberto Gonzales before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. As Dahlia Lithwick notes, the Attorney General made not the slightest effort this time around to explain how and why the eight (or more) US Attorneys got fired. He didn't try to justify himself or the administration. Instead, he just giggled at House Democrats and repeated nonsensical refrains. It was an act of defiance.

Gonzales was displaying open contempt for Congress. He wanted them to know that they don't matter.

For the past day, reporters and bloggers have been chattering about what is being described as a "watershed moment" for George Bush two days ago. He met with eleven Republican Congressmen who, we're told, spoke bluntly to Bush and warned him that he was going to lose Republican support in Congress unless he 'fixed' Iraq. This is supposed to be something like the beginning of the end of Bush politically.

Except that the entire episode amounts to practically nothing. Those 'tough' warnings come from a group of marginalized Republicans whose alleged demands of Bush make no sense. They promised, in effect, to continue supporting for the foreseeable future a President they claim they don't trust, while opposing all attempts to rein in his failed policies in Iraq. In other words, they're spineless fools at best.

One of the two leaders of the group is my own do-nothing Congressman, Charles Dent, so I think I can speak directly to this issue.

Sad, and ever so slightly bewildering news, from the Independent tonight: William Marshal, knight-errant and trusted advisor to several English kings, has died in Cornwall after a very long and storied life.

You could read the news from Britain that way. In 2004 David Keogh, a British civil servant, leaked a top secret memo to an aide for a Labour MP. The memo recorded the substance of talks in April 2004 between Tony Blair and George Bush at meetings which Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice also attended. Keogh says that he leaked the memo because it shows Bush to be a "madman", and he hoped it would get into the hands of John Kerry.

In 2005, The Daily Mirror published details of the memo. It records Bush telling Blair that he wanted to bomb the headquarters of Al-Jazeera in Qatar, an ally of the U.S. The memo also depicts Blair urging Bush not to do so because it would cause an international backlash.

Today, a British court convicted Keogh and his accomplice of violating the Official Secrets Act. The prosecution and even more the conviction seem to confirm that the memo is indeed authentic. In court, the British government did not challenge Keogh's account of the contents of the memo. Tony Blair once dismissed press reports about this memo as "conspiracy theories". That stands exposed as another of his lies.

James L. Taylor, deputy inspector general for the Homeland Security Department, testified before Congress May 1 about a plan by the Federal Protective Service to cut 249 FPS patrol officer positions and to replace them with contract guards to protect federal buildings in the nation's capital. Taylor's testimony is hardly an endorsement of the plan.

This testimony is a follow up to an April 18 hearing on Proposals to Downsize the Federal Protective Service and Effects on the Protection of Federal Buildings. You can find a scathing analysis of this plan by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee here.

There is a new report out from the Department of Education Inspector General that finds wholesale failures as a result of privatizaing the Department's IT. In brief, the EdIG found:

1. The contract for privatization lacked effective methods for ensuring that the contractor performed, and later changes did nothing to improve the situation.

2. The controls in place at the Department of Education did not ensure that the "contractor provided the quality and services required in the contract".

3. The Department of Education did not have practices in place to police the contract.

A commentary I posted here last Wednesday about a harsh news report concerning Stuart Bowen seems to have helped to generate some controversy. I thought I should alert you to the criticisms of my argument—though I also believe that these have lost sight of the central issues, as I framed them.

The student loan scandal just continues to roll on.

That gnashing of teeth you hear in the general vicinity of East Colfax and Broadway in downtown Denver is undoubtedly a reaction to another dissection of the tenuous futures of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News as they compete for readers and advertisers with online media outlets.

As someone who lives in both worlds, I don't see it as a zero sum game between print and pixels. And I'd like to suggest a "new" old idea to shape smart commentary and in-depth analysis as a companion to online breaking news.

In Bad Health Plans unbossed took a look at reports on worker reactions to developments in health benefits, such as consumer-directed health plans - CDHPs. Among the reports released by GAO last week was a look at how employers are reacting to the fast rise in the costs of health and retirement benefits. The two reports are bookends.

The Army now classifies the media as a threat in parallel to al-Qaeda and drug cartels. I kid you not.

A few days ago, unbossed discussed the plight of Nieman Marcus employees as among the latest group to have their personal information stolen. As is often the case, those harmed at the very, very last to know. In the case of the employees, weeks went by before they were told.

A GAO report released in the last week addresses this issue of informing those whose information has been compromised.

We humans live in a very fragile ecosystem these days. We have created this ecosystem, one with few redundancies, and it may do us in. We think we are living in and moving toward Tomorrowland where it is a small world afterall. But to survive, we might be better off living in Yesterdayland.

Here's why.

The Chronicle of Higher Education for May 3 reports on the Nelnet / student loan scandal. subscription only link:

For students with questions about admissions and financial aid, the College Planning Center of Rhode Island offers a rare solution: free advice. The center, which calls itself "the state's leading nonprofit resource" for students, answers questions from about 7,000 students each year through a call-in line and an office in Warwick, R.I.

State colleges and lawmakers often point students to the planning center, which is sponsored in part by the Rhode Island Student Loan Authority, a quasi-public state authority that is run by a board appointed by the governor.

But under a 2004 agreement, the planning center's employees work for a subsidiary of Nelnet, a major national student-loan company based in Nebraska.

OSHA was enacted with the stated purpose of assuring "so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions". On April 27, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission took a step in the direction of undermining this goal and, in the process, overturned 30 years of precedent.

All in a day's work for the Bush Administration.

Yesterday the Special Inspector General for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, released to Congress yet another damning report about the administration's failures in Iraq. Bowen's office, long a thorn in the side for Bush & Co., investigated 8 large reconstruction projects in Iraq that recently were declared successes. The study found that 7 of the 8 were not operating as designed any longer because of incompetence and looting. A very embarrassing story at the worst time, undercutting the fantasy that Democrats don't appreciate the many successes achieved in Iraq.

Today, by a curious coincidence, news leaks out that Bowen is himself under investigation by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

George Tenet is not the only figure complicit in selling the invasion of Iraq who has been trying to burnish his reputation in regard to that fiasco. Today Geoff Hoon, then British Defense Secretary, gives a self-serving interview to the Guardian.

Hoon says nothing however about the July 23, 2002 war council whose deliberations are recorded in the Downing Street Memo. In fact, he has the gall to pretend that we don't know what he was told at that meeting.

The Center for Responsive Politics compiles an annual personal financial disclosure database for federal executive branch cabinet members, senators and representatives.

Last year's data will be released later this month but I thought it telling to look at the 2005 results in the executive branch considering the nearly daily scandals of corruption and cronyism oozing from the White House these days.

View the top 10 chart on the flip...

On April 5, a consultant's computer - with private data about employees of Neiman Marcus and allied groups - was stolen. On April 10, Nieman Marcus was told about the theft. Thirteen days later, on April 23, Nieman Marcus informed its employees.