Unbossed has run periodic pieces on pandemic issues. Among the past pieces included at this link are Disaster / Pandemic Weak Links; Release your inner hypochondriac; Death and Disease Roundup; Employers, Pandemics and the FMLA; and Science Sunday Fun: Sick Science.

But now let us praise other pessimists who have gone on record as concerned about how we are preparing - or not preparing - for a pandemic.

It's a trickle now, but DoD is gradually bringing work back in-house. And the reason? To lower costs. It seems like, oh, so six months ago, that the government still kept up the drumbeat that privatizing was always better. So it feels startling to see government documents that state doing work in-house saves money. But there it is.

In August 2008, an explosion rocked a chemical plant in Institute, West Virginia. It killed two plant employees and raised fears of local residents, who had cause to worry. The Bayer CropScience plant there is reportedly the twin of the Union Carbide facility in Bhopal, India that killed thousands in the aftermath of a toxic chemical leak in 1984, one of the worst industrial accidents in history.

~ from On the Media

Most of us may already have forgotten the explosion and fire last August 28, 2008 in the Bayer CropScience chemical plan in Institute, West Virginia. But the truly explosive testimony last week on April 21, 2009 before the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations brings it all back. Indeed, revelations in just the opening statement by Rep. Bart Stupak are just jaw dropping.

That is the conclusion of GAO in a new report issued this past week. FYI, $72 billion is about 4% of the $1.8 trillion of reported government outlays and according to GAO is a significant increase of about $23 billion from FY 2007. The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA) requires executive branch agency heads to identify programs and activities that are susceptible to significant improper payments.

It's hard to imagine that any politician whose nomination for a federal cabinet position would relish having to take a stand on a controversial bill and one that has been heavily financed by agribusiness.

But last week, in the midst of her confirmation hearings and vote for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kansas Governor Sebelius vetoed HB 2121, a bill that would have used milk labeling as a way to crush dairy farmers who do not inject their dairy cows with rBST / rBGH / Posilac - artificial hormones - and take away the right of Kansans to have information that will let them choose what foods to serve themselves and their families.

But the fight is not over.

An essay by Michael Winship, senior writer of of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS. Crossposted with permission.

For policy wonks near and far, the celebrity of the hour isn't Susan Boyle, the Scottish church marm who belted out "I Dreamed a Dream" with the voice of an airy angel, or ex-Somali pirate hostage Richard Phillips, or Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA contestant from California who's against gay marriage because the Bible tells her so.

No, it's Ferdinand Pecora.

If the Food and Drug Administration were to let drug manufacturers directly fund the salaries of FDA employees, most Americans would be outraged at the obvious conflict of interest; and rightly so, for it's a rare employee who will bite the hand that pays his salary, even when public safety is at stake. Few Americans are aware that another industry has for years paid the salaries of government employees tasked with protecting the public from possible harm resulting from its highly toxic product. That industry is the nuclear power industry.

A federal watchdog lambasted a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Rural Utility Service effort to expand broadband Internet service to rural communities for serious "irregularities" in the $5.7 billion loan program.

At The Atlantic Murray Waas discusses the controversial firing of Daniel Bogden, one of the 9 US Attorneys sacked by the Bush administration in 2006 apparently for political reasons. No justification has ever been identified publicly for firing Bogden, a career government lawyer who was highly respected. Waas highlights one aspect of the firing, without however noting its legal significance.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' deputy, Paul McNulty, repeatedly raised objections to firing Bogden with Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. At one DOJ meeting, McNulty argued that they should take into account Bogden's family. When told that Bogden is a bachelor, however, McNulty dropped his objection to firing him.

Waas does not note that federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on marital status. Thus Bogden appears to have a solid legal case for demanding reinstatement to his former job as US Attorney for Nevada.

Among the recommendations made April 6 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the FY 2010 budget was a commitment to convert thousands of contractor jobs into government jobs. Why? To save money.

Merchant seaman and union member, John Cronan, explains to NBC's Today Show how the Maersk Alabama crew maintained control of their ship during a Somali pirate attack.

So, yesterday was full of news of tea parties. You would think that paying taxes was a sin greater than . . . well, the sin that has no name? But was any of that anger directed at real thieves? People who do pick the public's pocket? The sort of people that a blog about them gets the tag "crooks, thieves, and miscreants"?

Last year while campaigning candidate Barack Obama used to boast about a law he helped to enact in the Illinois state legislature, which required all police interrogations to be videotaped. This mandate of transparency, he said, would discourage abusive interrogation practices in the future and serve to hold accountable any public servant who dared to engage in them. Today, however, Evan Perez and Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal report that President Obama is on the verge of ordering the Justice Department to block the disclosure of evidence of extremely brutal interrogations – on the grounds that it would be too embarrassing for the public to see quite how abusively government employees behaved.

The three videotapes in question, from 2005, show the interrogations of multiple suspects (none ever charged with any crimes). Officers inflicted a variety of diabolically clever forms of torture on them as well as plain old physical brutality. For example, one preferred method of "interrogation" was to bang a suspect's head against the wall repeatedly.

Although the Justice Dept. wishes to publish the tapes, in compliance with an ACLU lawsuit seeking their release, some of the wise establishment types surrounding the new president reportedly are urging him to reverse his earlier position on transparency, accountability, and the rule of law. Their reasons?

Earlier parts discuss and include testimony from the crew of Flight 1549 and others on the USAir flight that landed in the Hudson after losing both engines. Those earlier parts have included background on deregulation and the impact of deregulation on working conditions and safety. This part examines witness testimony from the second panel.

First up is the testimony of the Honorable Robert L. Sumwalt III, Member, National Transportation Safety Board, accompanied by Mr. Tom Haueter, Director, Office of Aviation Safety, National Transportation Safety Board.

Parts I and II of this series included testimony of Captain Sully Sullenberger and of the air traffic controller who assisted the crew as their plane plunged into the Hudson River last January.

Today GAO issued a report on the new (much more expensive) "secure" passports. It seems that dying over 40 years ago is no impediment to travel abroad, at least insofar as getting a new passport. In this report, we also learn about the the Death Master File. Sounds like a great name for a new on-line game.

Part I, provided background on airline deregulation and its impact on working conditions and safety in the airline industry. It also included links to several earlier pieces on this subject. It then included in full recent testimony by Captain Sully Sullenberger on those same issues.

This Part examines other testimony on that subject at the February 24, 2009 Subcommittee on Aviation - US Airways Flight 1549 Accident.

Earlier today, CSPAN television re-broadcast a discussion panel, videotaped on February28. Appearing on "The Bush Administration and September 11" were Douglas Feith, Andrew Card, Michael Chertoff, Timothy Flanigan and Ari Fleisher, who took questions from journalists in the live audience about decision making and Constitutional issues following the attacks.

Some of the defenses offered by panelists were startling. Using a Haitian refugee situation as an analogy, Card suggested that Guantanamo was a "safe haven" for prisoners forcibly taken from Afghanistan. Other defenses were simply wrong, like Feith's claim that the 9/11 attacks represented the "first successful act of terrorism mass destruction" on US soil. Like a traffic accident, the video is both fascinating and appalling.

It is hard, I tell you, to make the transition to a new world, to a new reality. I'm struggling here, I have to tell you, with a real weltanschauung shift under way from the previous years. I mean, isn't it still odd to have a President who is actually worth listening to? Someone who, if he's on the TV, you say "shhh..., I'm trying to listen" rather than "change the channel"? And, well, there is a problem because it is difficult (for me, at least) to carve out the time to watch and listen to all the public statements and the impressive number of press conferences/availabilities and town halls.

I took the time to take a look at President Obama's public comments on his recent overseas trip. There is much in there (and much being distorted) if you're ready to put aside the hours to watch it all.

Join me after the fold for a brief look at issues of energy and climate change from these events.

A few weeks ago we observed:

If you're worried about your safety when you fly these days, consider how dangerous it is to work for an airline bent on cutting corners just so it can stay afloat in the shark-infested waters of airline deregulation.

Those dangerous conditions come as a result of years of cost-cutting and ruthless competition, leading to bankruptcies and worse, as we reported back in 2005. They, like our financial markets, are the poison fruit of deregulation. And like the financial markets, the real costs were imposed on the public.

Well Fargo announced today $3 Billion in profits. It was fantastic news and it sent the stock market soaring.

However, one thing that didn't get talked about was why they made so much money.

Wells Fargo CFO Howard Atkins discusses the banks $3 billion reported first quarter 2009 earnings. Atkins hypes the impact of mortgages to the bottom line, due to low interest rates and foreclosure selling no doubt, but shockingly admits at the 7:45 mark that with the writedowns that would have been required by Mark to Market the bank actually lost money on the quarter.

To put it another way, Wells Fargo made money because the government allowed them to play "let's pretend your assets are worth something".

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has some important business before her in Kansas as she is preparing for a role on the federal scene as secretary of Health and Human Services, assuming she is confirmed.

You see, the Kansas legislature has bowed to pressure and passed a law that is intended to prevent dairy farmers who do not use growth hormones in their cows from letting the public have this information. In recent years the public has clearly voted against milk produced using Posilac / rBST / rBGH.

The O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law has announced a project related to national and international health law. Of the project, it says it is “building a diverse portfolio of health law projects . . . collaborative relationships with faculty who possess a diverse set of interests and expertise.”

Incidentally, and before getting into its projects, the O’Neill Institute has announcement of jobs and fellowships. Something to do while waiting out the economic storm . . . and to further health care.

Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of the start of the Pittston strike, a coal miners' strike that would drag on for 14 months into 1990. On April 5, about 1,700 miners in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky struck Pittston Group's coal mining operations. Within a couple months there were demonstrations and solidarity strikes that involved 10 times as many people.

This was a strike that provided and still provides a window into who we were as a people and what we value. It still does. Twenty years after the strike began is time to re-examine the portrait of us as a people.

Essay by gjohnsit and crossposted with permission.

I'm old enough to clearly remember their lies. Their promise to us was that we would "think" while others would "sweat".

It sounded too good to be true, and like anything that sounds too good to be true, it was a lie.

The only things certain in life are, death, taxes, and misuse of military contractors. Not that there haven't been efforts to deal with the third inevitability. And not that those efforts haven't so far all gone down to defeat. But consider the recent efforts with SPOTting the contractors.

Out-of-state anti-abortion activists who rallied behind Colorado's Amendment 48 last year came up with another big goose egg Friday when the North Dakota Senate rejected a "personhood" bill that sought to confer constitutional rights to zygotes.

But reproductive rights advocates aren't cheering Roughrider State lawmakers just yet.

The government doesn't want you to panic because the risk is "hard to assess," but...

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that 15 brands of powdered infant formula are contaminated with perchlorate, a rocket fuel component detected in drinking water in 28 states and territories. (Environmental Working Group)

Why shouldn't that worry parents? Because, "the government requires that formula contain iodine, which counteracts perchlorate's effects (Associated Press)." But, somebody must be worried about the effects on infant health because "[government] researchers would not disclose the brands of formula they studied (AP)." Haven't we been here before?

American News Project's Lagan Sebert explores the nomination of yet another Wall Street veteran to fix the broken financial regulatory system. Video story cross-posted by permission.

Barack Obama's plan to name yet another Goldman Sachs alum to his economic team is proving too much for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sanders put a hold on the nomination of Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, effectively stopping the nomination process in its tracks. Sanders says Gensler, who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs and then joined the Treasury Department under Bill Clinton, played too big a role in deregulating derivatives in the 90s' to be trusted to reregulate the market now.

An essay by Judith Browne-Dianis, Co-Director Advancement Project, and crossposted with permission from Racewire.org.

For several months, the media has been pushing the fairy tale that the United States moved beyond racism with the election of President Obama. As untrue as that is, there are people who started acting on their post-racial fantasies years ago, eight years in fact, as the Bush Administration used that excuse to essentially stop enforcing the civil rights laws we already have. President Obama and his administration have the opportunity to take dramatic steps towards dismantling institutional racism and inequality by simply enforcing the laws that are already on the books. Rather than blindness or silence, taking this action requires us to live in reality so that we can change that reality.

Focus on the Family Action exposes a shocking revelation from a new poll on religious beliefs and politics — liberals and conservatives are different.

The evangelical pollster The Barna Group reveals this and other rather obvious conclusions at CitizenLink.com, the lobbying arm of the Colorado Springs-based ministry and publishing empire. Grab the smelling salts and read on.