Someday GAO will write a report assessing the quality of the Administration's counter-terrorism efforts and give it a positive rating. That day is not today. Big time.

We all are feeling uneasy about the economy and what it will mean for us personally and for the nation. One place you can get a picture of where things stand is through Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Here is the latest jobs report.

And today the House Oversight Committee issued letters of invitation to an April 17 hearing to explore why the government issued contracts for military supplies for Iraq and Afghanistan to a 22 year old contractor . . . and the supplies turned out to be defective. Yes, it would be nice to know who had responsibility for that. The guest list includes Condi.

That in essence is the point of a hearing to be held into an investigation by the House Oversight Committee. They want to know who has been tampering with federal contracting rules that require contractors to report waste and fraud. The list of invited guests to that hearing are no small fry.

Crossposted from a story by Erin Rosa at Colorado Confidential:

State troopers in Colorado have voted to form a union, according to Colorado WINS, a labor union coalition seeking to organize approximately 32,000 state workers.

The state trooper employee organization, known as the Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals, is the first of its kind to form as a representative group for state employees since Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter issued an executive order in November supporting state worker efforts to unionize and form employee partnerships.

We all know that we now have a government of the contractors, by the contractors . . . and maybe for the contractors. A report released today by GAO gets into the guts of what is happening and why . . . and the problems this mode of operation is creating.

GAO, of course, didn't put it that way, but that's the clear inference from its report released today on DOD Security Clearance processes.

Sen. John McCain will visit Denver on Thursday to do what many politicians have done before him -- ask for money. But the fundraising trip to the posh Petroleum Club in Denver tomorrow raises a central question of the 2008 campaign: would a McCain presidency simply reprise the oil-and-gas-friendly Bush Administration for another four years?

When Wal-Mart decided to go rBST-free last week, Monsanto knew it was in big trouble. So it's pulling out the big guns.

Yes, when the going gets tough, Monsanto's astroturf groups get going.

You read it at unbossed months ago. Amidst the victory celebrations when the harshest form of milk labeling ban failed in Pennsylvania, I predicted that this was not the end. I predicted that Monsanto and its wholly owned subsidiary army of minions would continue to push in many and insidious ways to make the world safe for rBST. Here are some links you will find useful if you are new to this issue. link here and here and here and here

So, Pennsylvanians, get ready again. The newest attack on your right to drink milk produced by cows not injected with rBST is on.

You bet! And here are some links to information on this important issue.

crossposted with permission by CSI Bentonville

I'm posting this as the fluffy bunny tale end of the diary I posted several hours ago but didn't have room for to include all I wanted so cut short. Please consider this a complementary companion diary to my earlier one:

On the Media again shows its value in this week's critiques of the way the press has failed to cover the war in Iraq. If you want to know what is going on with the MSM, you must check in with OTM. Let me add, that this coverage is anything but dull.

with permission of CSI Bentonville

It takes

10 full

cacao

pods

to make

6 bars

of chocolate.

Just when you thought the weird saga of Ben Stein's new film criticizing Darwin's theory of evolution couldn't possibly get any more ridiculous comes this live report from a sneak preview at the Mall of America.

Hold on to your pharyngula.

In a speech today at the Pentagon, George Bush declared that he has no regrets about an unnecessary and costly invasion of Iraq. Bush might have been drawing his inspiration from Edith Piaf, whose 1960 recording of Je ne regrette rien was dedicated to the Foreign Legion then fighting to subdue Algeria.

No! No regrets
No! I will have no regrets
All the things
That went wrong
For at last I have learned to be strong

No! No regrets
No! I will have no regrets
For the grief doesn't last
It is gone
I've forgotten the past

The March 10, 2008 memorandum from Chairman Henry A. Waxman to the Members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding the Employment Practices of Blackwater Worldwide is hard hitting while including a sense of irony.

The March EBRI Issue Brief includes the results of their most recent survey on health care, including new forms for paying for health care, such as consumer-driven health plans and high-deductible health plans, and their impact on health.

The Washington Post reports today that GOP political appointees (gasp!) are promoting privatization of toll roads after working in private sector construction, private equity firms, and other industries that make boatloads of money off toll roads — a subject followed closely by Unbossed since 2005 through our on-going Roads Scholars series.

A long and interesting story on hijinks in the Bush Administration's Department of Transportation. Unfortunately, the first mention of the players' background is buried 18 grafs into the story and further.

Five years ago today, Dick Cheney promised that Iraqis would greet invading American troops as liberators.

George Bush's Feb. 29 Executive Order is quite obviously another important step in his project to dismantle the oversight of intelligence activities, especially the oversight mechanisms instituted as a result of the Church Committee hearings in the 1970s. The Executive Order essentially neutered the Intelligence Oversight Board, which previously had considerable powers to expose illegal intelligence activities.

Allegations of racism are being raised about an amendment to a new 10-year funding bill for the Indian Health Service that supersedes laws for other federally-supported clinics.

At Politico David Kuhn makes the ridiculous argument that public support for the war in Iraq will boost McCain's presidential campaign and hurt the Democratic nominee this year.

The uptick in public support is a promising sign for Republican candidates who have been bludgeoned over the Bush administration’s war policies. But no candidate stands to gain more than McCain.

“How could Democrats possibly hand McCain a better issue than to let him run on his record of advocating a robust U.S. presence in Iraq with all the positive battlefield news that is filtering out of that country?” asked Michael O’Hanlon, a national security adviser at the Brookings Institution who has been at the center of the Iraq debate since the war’s outset.

Hard-core political numbers junkies sprouted a few extra gray hairs this week. The cause of their grief wasn't the perpetually suspect electronic voting machines or mind-numbing campaign finance reports. It was a sedate and relatively obscure government agency with the capacity to set off a whole lot of political mischief.

GAO has just released a new assessemnt that raises fundamental questions about the use of private contractors to perform military tasks.

Presidential signing statements have been of great concern, for overriding Congress' intent and thus for upsetting the balance of power set forth in our Constitution. Do signing statements have any affect on agency action? If not, then perhaps the concern is more philosophical at this point. GAO has now issued its third study of the impact of signing statements on agency action.

Yes, it is definitely a government of the contractors, by the contractors, and maybe even for the contractors. At least that is a concern GAO shares, according to a new report issued yesterday.

Briefly, a new GAO study finds that the Department of Defense has been demanding exemptions from environmental regulations so it can perform training activities, but GAO finds no evidence that DOD needs these exemptions.

Utilities, especially power utilities, are not my area. However, a new report released by GAO last week is a must-read, especially if you are concerned that power companies have now found a way to excuse themselves from regulation and oversight. It appears you may be correct. One unique aspect of this report is that GAO has provided on-line access to its survey results.

The Philadelphia Inquirer was the first to sound the alarm about Monsanto's campaign to censor milk labels and take our right to know how our food is produced. The story was picked up and moved forward by local independent papers such as Voices of Central Pennsylvania and the Williamsport Guardian.

But the newspaper that has really dug into the subject has been the New York Times. So here in chronological order is the story as carried by the Times this past year. Interesting where it has been carried as opinion or as news.

The EEOC's latest report shows that charges of discrimination are on the rise and in some cases are at the highest level ever.

During its convention last week, the AFL-CIO issued a number of position statements on the issues that concern us. I had thought about excerpting some here, but decided that the complete reports and statements deserve to be read.

So says the investigative report by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on the events leading up to the Crandall Canyon mine collapse.

That's the sad news from a new report by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.

A Kansas City business magazine reviews Ben Stein's new film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" calling it "arguably the smartest and most sophisticated documentary ever produced on the right side of the cultural divide on any subject, ever."

Move over Roger Ebert. There's a new sheriff in town.

The Small Business Administration has released its list of regulations that it says need to go.

The 2008 Top 10 rules were chosen on the basis of several factors: (1) whether the rule could reasonably be tailored to accomplish its intended objectives while reducing the impact on small businesses or small communities; (2) whether the rule being nominated has ever been reviewed for its impact on small entities; (3) whether technology, economic conditions, or other factors have changed since the rule was originally written; (4) whether the rule imposes duplicative requirements; and (5) the overall importance of the rule to small businesses and small communities.

As you'll see, EPA really takes it on the chin.

On Feruary 15, a Michigan federal district court judge dismissed the case of a nurse who was exposed to and infected by methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA while working at the Oakland County jail. She had claimed that her constitutional rights were violated because she was misled about the existence of MRSA in her workplace at the jail. Peck v. Oakland County, Case No.07-10167 (E.D. Mich. Feb.15, 2008). MRSA is a very serious disease. It is an antibiotic-resistant form of staphylococcus aureus. This means that an Infection from MRSA is difficult to treat.

That's the conclusion from a new survey by the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute, 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey.

The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) has issued a new proposed regulation for expanding the ways that NLRB elections can be held. The regulation is open for comments until March 27. Details on comments and the proposed changes are below.

Ripped from the headlines...

"The major difficulty in achieving home ownership in the past was a mortgage system that had become archaic, far too expensive, and actually dangerous -- for it encouraged high prices, hidden charges, and overbuying."

"...the old mortgage system has often been a hindrance rather than a help in the achievement of home ownership."

"Today, and in the future, those desirous of owning a home will wisely demand [a mortgage] free from hidden charges, lump-sum maturities, and the whole package of old system trials and tribulations."

...of 1935.

Yes, this was the United States Federal Government's response during the Great Depression to some of the depredations of the Gilded Age. I guess that during those Roaring 20s, people with money, let's just say bankers for instance, had gotten a bit, well, greedy.

I recently came across this handy booklet in which the government describes exactly how to handle and respond to a mortgage crisis.

Front groups - astroturf groups. They are everywhere these days. We smoked one out during the rBST fight in Pennsylvania - PAN - Pennsylvanians for Affordable Nutrition. It turned out Bonnie McCarthy of PAN was actually a lobbyist and more pro-Monsanto and rBST than consumers. Hers was a thinly disguised front group with a phone number that actually rang in the lobbyists office and was answered as a lobbyist. Link.

How do you separate the grassroots from the astroturf?

Among the options presented by Governor Rendell as his tolling / privatization highway agenda was "A long-term lease of the turnpike".

What is the advantage of a lease and certainly a long-term lease, you may ask? You should also ask: Who will get that advantage?

Remember the Golden Rule: Those that have the gold make the rules. So true when it comes to the creative ways that these private investors get involved in highways. Remember this!

On February 28, GAO issued a report that shows state and local government pension and other retiree benefits to be far shakier than is wise. Details below.

If you are the type of person who wants the facts and data on public policy issues and among the issues you are concerned about is retirees, you should get familiar with the Department of Health and Human Services website for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). There is a new report there that should be of special interest to you.

My friend Milo told me of a strange thing he heard on le Show. A little digging turned up this news account from Utah about a company named Prosper Inc.:

A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe...

Part I is here. Wouldn't you like the Midas touch. Everything you touch turns to gold (well, except the kids). Well, if you are a private entity that leases a tollroad you get the Midas touch as part of the contract. You cannot fail to make money. The state guarantees it. Here's how it works.

Here is a link to a new study on this issue.

The U.S. Economy And Changes In Health Insurance Coverage, 2000–2006 - Americans continued to lose their health insurance even as the economy improved by John Holahan and Allison Cook

On Friday afternoon the White House posted without fanfare a new Executive Order that revamps an important though little known intelligence board. There are a few minor changes, but the most radical revision appears to be that the board has now been stripped of nearly all its powers to investigate and check illegal intelligence activities. It's difficult to see what legitimate reasons there could have been for gutting the oversight activities of the board in this way, and the WH has not explained the changes.

A new report by British industrial relations scholar John Logan reviews the anti-union consultant business in the US. According to Logan, British companies are now using these services as well.

For months we have seen the results of Monsanto's stealth campaign popping up all over - a campaign to take away our right to know whether engineered hormones have been used to produce the milk we and our children drink. It's like a fungus growing underground until you see it pop up. Now the battle is on in Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Utah, and more. The topic today is legislation introduced in Monsanto that would forbid milk labels that give us the information we want in deciding which milk to buy.

Funny thing that if Monsanto thinks it's such a great product they don't want labels that tell us it's been used. Yep, a very funny thing.